Bears chairman addresses failed 2020 pursuit of Tom Brady

While covering the Week 4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Philadelphia Eagles game for Fox on Sept. 29, legendary quarterback Tom Brady revealed that he "was seriously considering" joining the Chicago Bears as a free agent in 2020 before he ultimately signed with the Bucs.

Bears chairman George McCaskey addressed Brady's claim on Thursday.

"Well, that seems like ancient history at this point," McCaskey said, as shared by Courtney Cronin of ESPN. "I do remember we were interested in pursuing [Brady]. It didn't work out for us. Worked out great for him in Tampa."

McCaskey referenced how Brady guided the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl LV win over the Kansas City Chiefs in his first season with Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles made starts for the 2020 Bears side that earned a postseason berth but suffered a wild-card playoff loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Brady later helped Tampa Bay reach the playoffs in his final two seasons as an active player, and the 2023 Buccaneers notched a postseason victory with Baker Mayfield serving as Brady's replacement. As for McCaskey, he's hoping rookie Caleb Williams can be for Chicago was Brady was for the New England Patriots across two decades.

"Anytime you're in a situation like that you're not putting all of your eggs in one basket," McCaskey added about his club's interest in Brady after TB12 left the Patriots as a free agent following the 2019 season. "You're looking at alternatives. It's the same in free agency, it's the same in the draft. If the person you're targeting isn't available, you want to make sure that you've done your due diligence on all other options. So that was one option that we were looking at."

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio noted that it doesn't sound like talks between the Bears and Brady's camp got very far before the future Hall of Famer put pen to paper on his contract with the Buccaneers. That reality likely won't stop some Chicago fans from wishing McCaskey and the club's front office had closed the deal with Brady in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.