It’s been a wild ride trying to figure out who “that motherfucker” was Tom Brady was talking about in the episode of The Shop earlier this year.
In the episode, he was talking about which NFL teams wanted him after his contract with the New England Patriots ended back in 2020, and when he was told one of the teams that wanted him was backing out because they were sticking with another quarterback, and that’s when he made the “that motherfucker” comment, saying:
“One of the teams, they weren’t interested at the very end. I was thinking… ‘you’re sticking with that motherfucker?'”
Many speculated that he was talking about Jimmy Garoppolo with the 49ers, Brady’s favorite team growing up.
But then, thanks to former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL over alleged racist hiring tactics, we know the Miami Dolphins were begging their coach to meet with Brady… illegally, but it sounds a lot like the Dolphins were the team who “lost interest.”
Their quarterback at the time, Ryan Fitzpatrick.
However, Brady’s longtime tight end Rob Gronkowski said it was actually Derek Carr from the Raiders who he was talking about.
Nevertheless, NFL journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick, AKA Fitzmagic,” still thinks Brady was talking about him.
He recently made an appearance on Dan Le Batard’s show, and discussed why he thought it was him:
“I think I still am. I think I still am that guy.
You know if you go back to that again, that’s before the 2019 season when the Dolphins were trying to assemble a roster that is going to help them get a better draft pick the next year, so it’s not like that was going to be an attractive situation for Tom anyway.
So I’m not sure why he was so upset about it, but I still today believe that I am that motha–.”
It makes sense, considering when all of this was going down it was the Miami Dolphins’ “Tank for Tua (Tagovailoa)” year, where they basically threw the season for the number one pick in the draft the next year, which happened to be the star Alabama quarterback.
Except, Brady recently explained on his podcast, Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald, and Jim Gray that Fitzpatrick was definitely not the QB he was talking about.
He said:
“I like to keep them guessing, unfortunately with this coming out I’d have to tell him, it wasn’t him. I love Ryan but somehow he’s got it out for me. Ryan’s a hell of a guy too, and I’ve competed against him.
He’s a Harvard guy, now he looks like he’s part homeless, and now he’s on TV, doing [what] my future job’s gonna be. I think Ryan’s got a good thing going, I’m not sure why he needs to think I’m after him.”
So, Fitzmagic, you can sleep easy at night knowing that you were not “that motherfucker” Brady was dogging earlier this year.
