FOX Sports courted Tom Brady before he returned to Buccaneers?

Almost immediately after Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady announced on Feb. 1 that he was retiring as an active player, the seven-time Super Bowl champion was linked in rumors with a return to the Buccaneers and with potential moves to clubs such as the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins. 

On Tuesday, FOX confirmed that Brady will be joining the network to call NFL action whenever he decides he’s played his last game. It appears the 44-year-old was considering making the jump to FOX before he announced his unretirement on March 13. 

Per Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post, the Post’s Andrew Marchand and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal explained on the latest edition of the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” that FOX became “irritated” after analyst Troy Aikman openly discussed potentially leaving the network following the 2021 NFL season in January. Aikman and Joe Buck both ultimately moved to ESPN as FOX had already “started talking to” Brady about becoming a lead analyst. 

“Tom Brady was deciding between going back and playing football, or going to Fox,” Ourand remarked. “And he ended up going to play football. We both thought at that time that his negotiations with Fox had been tabled to next offseason, or whenever he retires. At no point did we think those negotiations were continuing to go along to where they would announce it on Tuesday.”

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Tuesday that it’s “entirely up to” Brady when the signal-caller enters the booth. That same day, a company spokesperson refused to answer when asked if Brady could potentially call Super Bowl LVII, which will air on FOX in February 2023, if the Buccaneers aren’t playing. 

One other interesting twist to the story is that it appears some may have legitimately possessed inside information about Brady’s return before March 13.