SI

Tom Brady’s ‘That Motherf-----’ Quarterback Appears to Have Been Identified

The NFL’s investigation into the Dolphins may have solved the mystery from last year.

Daniel Chavkin

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The NFL’s reports on the Dolphins tampering investigation appeared to answer a lot of questions over how Miami ran its team recently. The league determined that the Dolphins had “impermissible” contact with Tom Brady before the quarterback became a free agent in 2020.

That illegal contact may have given us an answer to a different lingering question from the past year. When Brady appeared on The Shop in June of last year, he referenced that there was a team that backed out of his free agency bidding at the last minute to stick with another quarterback.

“One of the teams, they weren’t interested at the very end,” Brady said. “I was thinking, ‘You’re sticking with that motherf-----?’”

Well, if that team was the Dolphins, that could mean he was referencing then-Miami quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

“When I look back, I’m like, there’s no f------ way I would’ve went to that team,” Brady said. “But they said they didn’t want me. I know what that means, I know what that feels like. And I’m gonna go f--- you up because of that.”

Fitzpatrick signed a two-year deal to be the Dolphins’ quarterback before the 2019 season, so when the team ultimately passed on Brady as a free agent the following season, it already had Fitzpatrick on the roster as a fallback. Miami then drafted Tua Tagovailoa in that year’s draft.

Brady went on to win the Super Bowl in 2020, while Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa rotated as the quarterbacks that season and the Dolphins missed the playoffs by a game.

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Daniel Chavkin
DANIEL CHAVKIN

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