The San Francisco 49ers are just one game away from reaching the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy after the second-year quarterback had a strong enough season to put him in MVP consideration. But it sounds like the Niners had other plans for their starting quarterback role this season: Tom Brady.
Last week, Brock Purdy told Nick Wagoner of ESPN that the San Francisco 49ers wanted to sign Tom Brady to be the team’s starting quarterback this season instead of him.
“Early in the offseason, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan sat down with Purdy and assured him that if he was healthy he would be the starter unless Brady wanted to play one more season for his hometown Niners,” Wagoner wrote for ESPN. “‘That meant so much to me,’ Purdy said. ‘I remember him saying, if we can get Tom Brady, we’re going to try to get him. And I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s the GOAT. I get it.’ But something deep down inside me was sort of like, ‘Dude, I just showed you that I can play well in this system. And we were one game away from the Super Bowl.’ … More than anything, I was like, ‘OK, now let’s go.’”
Obviously, it’s pretty shocking news that the Niners wanted to sign Brady after he had apparently retired from the league, and the NFL world had a lot to say about it on social media as a result.
Tom Brady literally said he was thinking about coming back and the only reason he didn’t was his friends threw him a surprise retirement party and he figured he had to commit to the retirement at that point https://t.co/0emBbKlQ6b
— Ish (@_ish_3) January 22, 2024
https://twitter.com/bbqchucken/status/1749461243281223964?s=20
Should've signed him when he left the Pats. They would've won a superbowl or two https://t.co/xCSIyvuzUi
— DM 🇿🇦 (@DarryM0) January 22, 2024
I mean who wouldn’t? https://t.co/SgKeCSgura
— Jamal St Brown🧤 (@JamalStBrown) January 22, 2024
This is pretty wild https://t.co/LCzBxjic7S
— Koog (@Koogzz) January 22, 2024
https://twitter.com/Panikkar37/status/1749459927863611643?s=20
It didn’t happen, but it certainly would have changed the course of this NFL season.
[ESPN]
