Tom Brady's departure from the New England Patriots was shocking four years ago, but now the 47-year-old revealed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had some competition before officially waving goodbye to the frigid East Coast temperatures to acclimate in the Florida sunshine.
In fact, Brady "seriously" considered taking his talents to the NFC North.
"There was a lot of reasons to choose Tampa and I made about 18 criteria why," Brady said, as seen on FOX's Buccaneers-Eagles live coverage Sunday. "There was things all the way from salary obviously to the weather to the facilities to how great the players were and ultimately -- Chicago was a team, and I never told that story before, they were very stealth in their recruitment. I was seriously considering (the Bears), but in the end, it came down to Tampa, and it was close to my son Jack, I love Bruce Arians and the role that he played in offense, and ultimately the great players like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin that I'm still out there watching today."
Brady's consideration paid off in the blink of an eye. In silencing the naysayers, at 44 years old nonetheless, Brady transformed a 7-9 Buccaneers team into champions. Brady earned his 15th Pro Bowl nod, finished second in MVP voting, and led the NFL with a career-high 5,316 passing yards.
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Meanwhile, a dark cloud hovered over the Bears that season.
Chicago began the season 5-1 under then-quarterbacks Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles, but followed that red-hot start by losing six games to finish 8-8. Needless to say, under Brady's leadership, history might've told a different story had Tampa Bay not landed the all-time great.
