George McCaskey confirms Bears interest in Tom Brady in 2020

Tom Brady recently filled garbage time during a Fox broadcast claiming that the Bears quietly pursued him in free agencyin 2020. Bears president George McCaskey has confirmed past interest in Brady.

“Well, that seems like old history at this point,” McCaskey said from England, site of his team’s Week 6 game, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “I do remember it we were interested in pursuing him. It didn’t go well for us. He did very well in Tampa.”

The term “interested in pursuing him” suggests that he did not get very far. And McCaskey made it clear that, like all teams, the Bears evaluated several potential avenues.

“Whenever you’re in a situation like this, you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket,” McCaskey said. “You’re looking for alternatives. It’s the same in free agency, it’s the same in the draft. If the guy you’re targeting isn’t available, you want to make sure you’ve done your due diligence on all the other options . So that was an option we were looking at.”

Finally, the Bears traded with the Jaguars for Nick Foles. And Foles and the Bears beat Brady on a Thursday night in 2020, fueled by Brady not realizing he was fourth down.