Tom Brady's master plan to unretire from the NFL and become the league's first-ever owner/player is in motion. The Denver Broncos seemingly dodged a bullet in the 2023 offseason when Brady retired instead of joining forces with familiar faces on the Las Vegas Raiders, namely his old offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as well as Raiders GM Dave Ziegler, who was an executive in New England during Brady's time there.
Although I'm kind of joking about Brady being an owner/player, I don't think we can put anything past the GOAT. Brady threw for almost 4,700 yards last season with 25 touchdowns and just nine interceptions. The Buccaneers only won eight games but still managed to make the playoffs before Brady ultimately decided to call it a career (again) earlier this offseason.
But it's kind of a prerequisite for the GOATs to retire at least twice, isn't it? Michael Jordan retired twice before becoming part owner of the Washington Wizards franchise, and upon seeing the product on the court, he stepped down from the owner's box and unretired onto the court for the Wizards as an owner/player.
Would it shock anyone if Tom Brady was following this same exact script? It shouldn't.
For the time being, the Denver Broncos will plan on facing off against the Jimmy Garoppolo-led Raiders after signing him in free agency. But recent news regarding Brady's pursuit of part-ownership in the Raiders has to make you at least raise an eyebrow...
The sale of a minority share of the @Raiders to ex-Patriots and Bucs QB @TomBrady has been agreed to and submitted to the NFL for approval. Won’t be done at the spring meeting but ball is rolling on it.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 22, 2023
(Brady is already in business w/Vegas owner Mark Davis, with the WNBA Aces.)
It's obviously a bit of a conspiracy theory to think Brady is just biding his time before putting on an NFL uniform again. The easier path would obviously be to just come out of retirement and say he wants to play for the Raiders. Even if Brady is truly retired, I think rumors of him returning to the field will persist for at least another year.
He clearly can still play, and as a part-owner of the team, what happens when Brady catches wind that things aren't so peachy with Davante Adams? What happens when Davante hits him up at practice to put the pads back on again?
Furthermore, what is going to happen as this stake in ownership is finalized by the league and we get to the regular season, where Jimmy Garoppolo certainly hasn't been a model of consistency in regards to his health?
I'm not saying, I'm just saying. For the time being, Brady is joining a Denver Broncos division rival. That ball is rolling. We'll see how long it takes him to scratch the itch to play again, but all signs would obviously be pointing to the Raiders now, if that's going to happen at all.