UFC president Dana White trade headlines when he claimed that Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski would have been Las Vegas Raiders in 2020 had Jon Gruden not nixed the deal.
“I worked to put that deal together for Brady and Gronk to come to the Raiders. And it was almost a one deal. And at the last minute, Gruden blew the deal up and said that he didn’t want [Brady],” White said. “And all hell broke loose, man. It was crazy and Brady was already looking at houses, and it wasn’t being said yet that Gronk was coming. So Las Vegas would have have Brady and Gronk the year that the Bucs won the Super Bowl, except Gruden blew the deal up.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis is having a hard time remembering these details. He denied knowing anything about a deal for Brady and Gronkowski.
“That was what — two to three years ago or something?” Davis said. “I don’t know, man. Talk to Dana. I remember that Tom Brady went to Tampa Bay. That’s basically what I remember. I have no idea. Dana has the stories. I love Dana. He is a great, great promoter. Why would this make me upset?”
Brady was rumored to have drawn interest from several teams while he was a free agent but ended up joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gronkowski said he was happy it did not work out and was happy to get traded to the Buccaneers from the New England Patriots and come out of retirement. The Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2020. Gruden resigned from the Raiders after emails were leaked showing the coach used homophobic and misogynistic language in 2011.
Since then, the Miami Dolphins have been penalized for their plans to pursue Brady and Saints coach Sean Payton. The NFL found Dolphins team owner Stephen Ross had “impermissible communications” with Brady and Payton.
