Bears owner confirms Tom Brady's comments about team's pursuit in 2020

It's very rare to see a star quarterback hit free agency in the NFL, especially one of Tom Brady's caliber. Yet, that's what happened after the 2019 campaign. Brady, frustrated with his situation with the New England Patriots, wanted a fresh start after 20 seasons there.

He ended up signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and having tons of success in his three seasons there, winning a Super Bowl and leading the league in completions in two of those three years. Perhaps most importantly, though, Brady proved that he was a game-changer and deserved a whole lot of credit for all of the winning that transpired in New England.

His three years in Tampa Bay couldn't have gone much better, but that doesn't mean that the Bucs were the only team interested in signing him. In fact, Brady revealed in his return to Raymond James Stadium as a broadcaster that he considered signing with the Chicago Bears. Chicago's chairman, George McCaskey, confirmed that via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.

"Well, that seems like ancient history at this point," McCaskey said. "I do remember we were interested in pursuing him. It didn't work out for us. Worked out great for him in Tampa."

Bears owner confirms team's interest in signing Tom Brady

Brady signing with the Bears, a team that hasn't won the Super Bowl since 1985 with an extremely hungry and passionate fan base would've been something to behold, but it's not hard to see why he ended up choosing Tampa Bay.

In addition to the fact that the weather is a whole lot better in South Florida than it is in the Windy City, the Bucs had a whole lot more to offer talent-wise than Chicago did. Brady had players like Chris Godwin and Mike Evans to throw to, while he recruited Rob Gronkowski, Leonard Fournette, and Antonio Brown to Tampa Bay. Additionally, the Bucs were armed with a quality defense.

Chicago didn't have nearly as much talent on the offensive side of the ball. Sure, they might've been able to acquire Gronkowski, Fournette, and Brown, but the likes of Allen Robinson III and Darnell Mooney didn't quite match up to Evans and Godwin.

Brady, as outlined earlier, had tons of success in Tampa Bay, while the Bears struggled with their solution under center, Nick Foles. As unfortunate as losing out on Brady turned out to be, the Bears are doing pretty well now, in hindsight, with Caleb Williams as their franchise quarterback.