Russell Gage Thought Tom Brady Phone Call Was Prank

The wide receiver couldn’t believe the phone call he received from the seven-time Super Bowl champion.
Russell Gage Thought Tom Brady Phone Call Was Prank
Russell Gage Thought Tom Brady Phone Call Was Prank /
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New Buccaneers wide receiver Russell Gage was taken aback in free agency when he received a phone call from recently unretired quarterback Tom Brady, who reached out to the former Falcons wide receiver to recruit him to Tampa Bay.

“For a minute, I thought it was a prank, somebody was trying to pull one on me,” Gage said during his introductory press conference on Friday.

“I had just seen some fake news on social media so my mind was kind of on fake news, so then when I got the call it was kind of like, ‘Alright.’ I’m in a state of shock and I’m stuck between, ‘O.K., this is unreal,’ and ‘this is not funny!’ Just trying to navigate my way through that, and then as we got going, I realized, ‘O.K., this is something serious.”

Gage, who has admired Brady his entire career, was excited to receive the phone call from the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

“I had conversations with teams and offers and whatnot, but this was just completely different. This was like no other. It was a huge blessing. I was three years old when tom Brady got into the NFL, so to hear somebody like that, just seeing the other day that he unretired and now he’s reaching out to me? It was unreal.”

Prior to signing his new three-year deal with the Bucs, Gage spent the last four seasons with the Falcons. He recorded 66 receptions for 770 yards and four touchdowns last season.

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Mike McDaniel
MIKE MCDANIEL

Mike McDaniel is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since January 2022. His work has been featured at InsideTheACC.com, SB Nation, FanSided and more. McDaniel hosts the Hokie Hangover Podcast, covering Virginia Tech athletics, as well as Basketball Conference: The ACC Football Podcast. Outside of work, he is a husband and father, and an avid golfer.