Tom Brady shocked the sports world yesterday when he openly admitted, for the very first time, that he had considered joining the Chicago Bears during his 2020 free agency. This revelation left Bears fans heartbroken, and one of them was former NBA star Dwyane Wade.
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The situation centered around the Fox broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Philadelphia Eagles game. Brady, who appeared as an analyst, held up handwritten notecards from his free agency days to explain his thought process. One of those cards was specifically for the Bears. The 47-year-old later said,
“Ultimately, Chicago was a team, and I’ve never told that story before, they were very stealth in their recruitment. I was seriously considering them.”
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This news spread like wildfire. It caught Wade‘s attention after SportsCenter posted about this moment on Instagram. As a lifelong Bears fan, Wade was understandably devastated. He didn’t hold back his feelings, commenting,
“Tom don’t do that to us.”
Wade on his IG about Tom Brady pic.twitter.com/GrzJHVOo1E
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) September 30, 2024
This showcased Wade’s connection to Chicago. As an Illinois native, he spent 18 years of his life there. ‘The Flash’ closely followed the Bulls during his growing-up years. He later even credited the NBA franchise for igniting his love for basketball. His passion for sports only grew over time. He soon began supporting other sports teams in the city, with the Bears being a standout.
Wade thus returned to his hometown toward the twilight of his career. He joined the Bulls in 2016 on a two-year deal. However, the city didn’t quite return that love. Fans began to boo the 3x champion, and much of the blame started falling on him. This unprecedented player-fan dynamic prompted him to leave the Bulls just a year later. He later reflected on this period on Fubo Sports, saying,
“It was a lot of games where I was like, ‘Where the crowd at?’ and they booed us a lot too.”
Although his experience of playing in Chicago was much different from what he had originally hoped for, his love for the city stayed strong. This sentiment was evident in his latest comments. After all, it was a golden opportunity for the Bears to turn their franchise around and compete for a Super Bowl.
At the same time, it was a huge setback for NFL fans because Brady‘s nemesis, Aaron Rodgers, was in the same NFC North division as the Bears. He was playing for the Green Bay Packers at that time. This meant that the biggest stars from this century could have faced off against each other multiple times in a season.
This cinematic timeline never became a reality. Instead, Brady gifted the Buccaneers their second Super Bowl title in franchise history.
