Saints’ Interest In Tom Brady A Con Job?
July 9th, 2021
A different spotlight has been shed on the annoying and very public chatter that Tom Brady was pursued hard by the New Orleans Saints last offseason.
Joe never bought that nonsense. No matter how hard BSPN’s Jeff Darlington sold it on TV.
Brees and Brady share the same personal throwing coach, guru Tom House. And they are all friends. Brees was coming back to New Orleans and it made no sense that Brady would tread on Brees’ turf like that.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com notes Brady and Brees also share the same agent, who may have been part of the con game played out in the media.
Brady-Saints chatter resurfaced this week when the New Orleans general manager jumped on Adam Schein’s podcast and was tight-lipped on the issue, simply saying the Saints were all-in on Brees as soon as he committed to playing the 2021 season.
So why was there a sense that Brady was considering the Saints, even after Brees had said he’d return to New Orleans? The explanation could be as simple as this. Don Yee represents both Brady and Saints coach Sean Payton. Once it became clear that Brady was bound for the Buccaneers, propping up the Saints as a potential destination would help leverage Tampa Bay to pay more money and/or make more concessions — such as free and full access to the team and its facilities for TB12 guru Alex Guerrero, pandemic notwithstanding.
Florio adds that the Saints would have been happy to pretend they had Brady interest in order to jack up Brady’s cost to the Bucs.
Joe’s not knocking Brady by typing this, but obviously the Saints made a solid move by keeping Brees. They won the division and beat the Bucs in two out of three games last season.
They weren’t going to dump a perfectly fine QB just to sign Brady. But if they had, they probably would have won the NFC South by four games and cruised to the Super Bowl.
July 9th, 2021 at 6:09 am
Payton and Brady have the same agent according to the article, not Brees and Brady.
July 9th, 2021 at 6:18 am
Quite frankly we underpaid Brady at the time. He gave the Bucs a sweetheart deal so I don’t buy that part. I’m almost certain he wasn’t going anywhere he couldn’t bring Alex Guerrero with, and even if he was flexible on that I don’t think Licht was in a position to say no. And why would an in-division rival do anything to help Tom Brady out? Because they share the same agent? Florio’s seriously reaching.
My guess is that some in the Saints didn’t want Brees back and were looking to upgrade but got overruled. Now their window likely closed and everyone is looking to keep the blame off of them. Just like every organization on the decline.
July 9th, 2021 at 6:40 am
Sorry, not a Florio fan. Some of his reporting is good but then he and Simms go off in fantasy worlds. Maybe that’s what they have to do to draw interest these days. I’m well aware of the casual fan/fantasy football world we live in. Yes folks, the Jerry Springer mentality has invaded everything. If there’s nothing interesting going on, make something up. The Saints option was pretty simple. If Brees retired Brady was an option. Everything after Brees decided to play another year is made up, concerning Brady. Maybe I’m too hard on Florio. After all, we live in a click bait world.
July 9th, 2021 at 6:56 am
Is Florio the son of Mike Lupica?
July 9th, 2021 at 8:28 am
Before Florio was famous Steve Dumeig used to have him on every Friday. Finally,after years of doing Big Dogs show he said something along the lines of “you’re the last of the old school guys that gets this spot for free” shortly thereafter he became the Florio we have today.
July 9th, 2021 at 8:50 am
Brady signed for a pedestrian-like $25 mil, not seeing it
July 9th, 2021 at 8:55 am
On top of everything written here video surfaced last year of Brees and Brady talking like friends and Brady throwing “TDs” to Brees’ kid like he was their Uncle Tommy. I don’t believe the Saints pursued Brady hard. Maybe they kicked the tires a little but that’s it.
Besides, I thought they already had their QB of the future in Jameis.
Kidding.
July 9th, 2021 at 9:13 am
Brady would have been interested in New Orleans, they had a good roster and a good head coach. However it was all up to Drew Brees for two good reasons: 1. Brady and Brees are good friends, 2. Brees was face of the franchise, their Super Bowl and record breaking QB. Unlike Belichick who cowed Robert Kraft into submission, there was no way the New Orleans franchise was going to turn their back on Brees. It was Brees’ call all the way, it was the right thing for the franchise to wait on him.
July 9th, 2021 at 9:23 am
Sean Payton is the person I most hate on the history of the NFL…..
July 9th, 2021 at 10:33 am
Don’t care.
July 9th, 2021 at 10:38 am
TB was the person who decided his salary not his agent. He even did not talk about that in the interview with Litch and BA. Actually, he decided to join the Bucs before the interview.
July 9th, 2021 at 10:51 am
Don’t care. Hurry up OTA.
July 9th, 2021 at 10:53 am
Whole charade seems to be a case of the media trying to start a fire by blowing smoke.
July 9th, 2021 at 11:23 am
Wasn’t Brees still under contract for that year. They had to wait to see if Brees wanted to retire or to play. The team probably had a date in mind that off-season for Brees to make the decision. They couldn’t really make any moves until he decided. Once Brees decided to return they would have had to cut him to sign Brady. They may have kicked the tires on signing Brady. But when Brees made the decision to play that blew up any chance of signing Brady.
July 9th, 2021 at 3:38 pm
seems irrelevant. The Buccaneers got there man, the price was not crazy, they won the Super Bowl and returned everyone.
It’s all good. I think the Bucs D is licking their chops to face Jameis all game…. Twice.
July 9th, 2021 at 10:39 pm
In the end…the Saints conned/played themselves. Payton was nervous when the Bucs signed Brady…Brady aged like wine…Brees aged like milk. That playoff win over the Saints was up there next to the Bucs beating the Eagles in 2002 as best non-Super Bowl wins in team history.