Tom Brady's departure from the New England Patriots was shocking in its own right four years ago, but now the retired 47-year-old revealed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had some competition before officially waving goodbye to the frigid East Coast temperatures to acclimate in the Florida sunshine.
In fact, Brady "seriously" considered taking his talents to the NFC East.
"There was a lot of reasons to choose Tampa and I made about 18 criteria why," Brady said, as seen on FOX's Buccaneers-Eagles live coverage Sunday. "There was things all the way from salary obviously to the weather to the facilities to how great the players were and ultimately -- Chicago was a team, and I never told that story before, they were very stealth in their recruitment.