A new challenger has entered the arena.
That is to say, a new quarterback has been tied to Tom Brady’s viral quote in which he called an unnamed passer a “motherf—er” after he found out said QB’s team was not interested in signing him in free agency: Derek Carr of the Raiders.
New evidence has blown open what was widely considered a solved mystery. That evidence is a story UFC president Dana White told during an appearance on the UFC 278 “GronkCast,” which Brady’s favorite tight end hosted.
During his appearance on the alternate cast, White claimed to have brokered a deal that would have sent Brady and Gronkowski to the Raiders in 2020, instead of the Buccaneers. White — whose story was corroborated on-air by Gronkowski — said it was all but a done deal before then-coach Jon Gruden “blew it up.”
Dana White says Brady and Gronk ➡️ Raiders “was almost a done deal.” 😳 #UFC278 pic.twitter.com/buWEXxi5Ho
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 21, 2022
MORE: Twitter names Jimmy Garoppolo as ‘mother f—er’
White spoke vaguely about further details behind the scenes, adding intrigue to what was already a massive story in the NFL. And now the question must be asked: Could Carr be the “motherf—er” Brady was talking about?
Is Derek Carr the ‘motherf—er’ Brady referred to?
The timing of White’s story seems to align with Brady’s viral clip in which he expressed disbelief that a team would turn him down over their current quarterback:
“One of the teams, they weren’t interested at the very end. I was thinking, ‘You’re sticking with that motherf–ker?’”@TomBrady kept receipts on his free agency 🤐 @brgridiron#TheShopHBO premieres Friday at 9:30pm on @hbomax pic.twitter.com/lDW8ywrLLP
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 21, 2021
Of note, White said the deal to get Brady and Gronkowski to Las Vegas was all but done, at which point Gruden essentially nixed it. That the rejection came in the late stages of negotiations would lend credence to Brady’s assertion that “one of the teams, they weren’t interested at the very end.”
So: Could Carr have been that quarterback? His credentials at the time were less than stellar. He was 39-55 as a starter, which included a 12-4 campaign in 2016 that saw the Raiders, then in Oakland, suffer a first-round exit to the Texans after Carr suffered a broken leg in Week 16. It was his only winning season in Oakland.
Carr’s stats at the time weren’t bad, but certainly not Brady’s caliber: a career completion percentage of 64 percent, 22,793 passing yards and 143 touchdowns to 62 interceptions. He was a three-time Pro Bowler, but he had not enjoyed that status in two seasons.
(For what it’s worth, the Raiders went 8-8 in 2020 while Brady, Gronk and the Bucs went 11-5 en route to a Super Bowl victory in the duo’s first season in Tampa).
MORE: When will Tom Brady return to the Buccaneers?
Considering Brady is the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history, it naturally led people to wonder which team would possibly turn him down. The thinking at the time was it was one of the two other finalists Brady reportedly considered in free agency before signing with the Bucs: the Chargers and 49ers.
Brady indicated in his “Man in the Arena” ESPN documentary that he may have been interested in the Bears as well, but most people seemed to settle on 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was once Brady’s backup in New England.
That could still be the case (or it could be Carr, or someone completely different). No one will know for sure until Brady reveals that himself, which is not likely. Until then, the evidence points to one of Garoppolo or Carr.
In the case of the latter, at least, the evidence is compelling.
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