Over the past couple years, few people have been as plugged in to all things Tom Brady as ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. When Brady was set to leave New England two years ago, Darlington was the first to report a pending divorce. Then, a few days before the Bucs quarterback retired in 2022, Darlington and Adam Schefter reported that Brady was calling it quits. Three days later, the quarterback announced his decision to walk away from the game.

So now that Brady is back, there are few better individuals to tell us what happened than Darlington. The reporter joined the Ari Meirov NFL Show on Thursday, discussing Brady’s retirement. Meirov asked Darlington point blank if rumors of Brady attempting to join the Dolphins in some capacity were true.

“That wasn’t really the way it went down,” Darlington said. “I don’t wanna go too far down the wormhole with it. Let’s put it this way. When Brady announced his retirement, he was done with football. There were no ulterior motives. I can tell you that as a matter-of-fact. There were things in the background where he was definitely having conversations. The Miami stuff. Where there is smoke, there’s fire, for sure. Especially with the ownership aspect of [discussions with Miami].

“But the idea that he was trying to get himself to San Francisco, for instance? That was not going to happen. Tom Brady is building a house in South Florida. It was very important to him when he came to the Bucs that he was on the east coast. That was a big part of it because Jack, his son, is in New York. And [Brady] wanted to be closer to him, relatively speaking. So the San Francisco thing wasn’t going to happen. Even if San Francisco would have liked for it to. But we don’t even need to go there. That wasn’t going to be the case.”

Brady Committed To Bucs

Brady retired for just 40 days before returning to the Bucs. During that time, he was in constant communication with Bruce Arians and Jason Licht. He stayed abreast of all the moves the team was making, as well as the course they were plotting for the offseason. About halfway through his brief retirement, Brady started to feel the itch to play again.

Bucs QB Tom Brady and senior football consultant Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Once he came back, he was fully committed to the Tampa Bay Bucs,” Darlington said. “That’s the most interesting thing about all these rumors that have gone around. I think they’re delayed. People are maybe just figuring out what was going on behind the scenes, before and around his retirement.

“But once he came back, he was fully committed to the Bucs. He made it very clear to the Bucs organization where he stood with things. Also, he was in clear communication about personnel situations, when Ali Marpet retired. Brady was retired at that point, but he was still looking at those scenarios, understanding that he was starting to get that itch already. So once he came back, it was all about the Bucs. And, as far as I know in all my conversations, which have been pretty extensive, he remains fully committed to playing for the Bucs in 2022.”

The last part is really no surprise to anyone who has paid attention. After all, Brady has had a heavy hand in recruiting the Bucs’ 2022 crop of free agents. He’ll quarterback the team in 2022, then be a free agent this upcoming offseason. At that point, Brady could decide to retire, go elsewhere or return to the Bucs. According to Darlington, even Brady doesn’t know what’s in store for him right now.

Darlington Describes “Conversations” Between Brady, Dolphins

But Darlington did say that conversations between Brady and the Dolphins occurred. It sounds like these were post-playing football plans though, not plans to seek a trade. Those discussions were likely tied to Brady exploring potential part ownership in the franchise. Once he decided to return to football, all that was put on hold. Per Darlington, it doesn’t sound like those discussions even got very far.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“There’s certainly been conversations,” Darlington said. “Between Tom and…he’s got very close ties to the Dolphins organization. At the same time, I don’t necessarily subscribe to the belief that you can be like, ‘oh that was about to happen’, if you don’t know the ins and outs. People can talk about things. They can negotiate even, if that’s the case. And if something doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.

“If you go to the car dealership down the street and you look at a car, it doesn’t mean that you absolutely are buying that car. And if you don’t, you walk away and you move on. With Tom Brady, it’s like anytime he has a conversation about anything with anybody, it’s like ‘whoa, wait! he’s not committed to the Bucs!’. And it just wasn’t to that extent.”

You can watch the full show here, including Darlington’s comments about his experience after reporting Brady was going to retire. It’s pretty enlightening stuff.