During a Fox broadcast, Tom Brady mentioned that the Bears showed interest in him during free agency in 2020. Bears chairman George McCaskey confirmed this interest.
“Well, that seems like ancient history at this point,” McCaskey said from England, where his team was preparing for their Week 6 game, according to Courtney Cronin from ESPN.com. “I do remember we were interested in pursuing him. It didn’t work out for us. Worked out great for him in Tampa.”
McCaskey’s comment about being “interested in pursuing him” implies that the talks didn’t go very far. He also emphasized that, like all teams, the Bears considered various options.
“Anytime you’re in a situation like that you’re not putting all of your eggs in one basket,” McCaskey said. “You’re looking at alternatives. It’s the same in free agency, it’s the same in the draft. If the person you’re targeting isn’t available, you want to make sure that you’ve done your due diligence on all other options. So that was one option that we were looking at.”
In the end, the Bears traded with the Jaguars for Nick Foles. Foles and the Bears ended up defeating Brady on a Thursday night in 2020, partly because Brady didn’t realize it was fourth down.
