Back in 2020, Tom Brady packed his bags for Tampa and, well, he turned the Buccaneers into Super Bowl champs practically overnight. Could he have pulled off the same magic with Chicago? Brady’s heading back to Soldier Field this weekend for “America’s Game of the Week,” a place that was almost his home turf. During the Bucs-Eagles broadcast in his very first year with Fox, the NFL star let slip a little nugget he’s never shared before.

Turns out the Bears were right there in the mix when he hit free agency for the first time. “Ultimately, Chicago was a team—and I never told that story before—they were very stealth in their recruitment,” he said last year. “I was seriously considering them.”

Fast forward to now, and as Brady heads to Soldier Field for the Week 3 game between the Bears and the Cowboys, the Fox analyst just shared that he was much closer to landing in Chicago than anyone could ever have imagined. “They were pretty involved,” Brady said about the Bears’ interest in free agency.

“A lot of things happened in free agency, and different kinds of teams come out of the woodwork. I really wasn’t expecting Chicago to be one of them, but they were pretty much all-in. It was a strong consideration for a long time.” When Brady split from the Patriots, all the chatter was about two main suitors: the Chargers and the Buccaneers.

As for the other teams? Well, most of the speculations swirled around the Dolphins. But nobody, not even Brady, thought that the Bears were in the mix as well. But the Bears’ interest in Brady at that time was tangible. After all, Windy City had just watched Mitchell Trubisky come down to earth. The QB was fresh off an 11-win season with Matt Nagy in 2018, but 2019 told a different story. Chicago stumbled to an 8-8 (8-7 with Trubisky under the center) finish, missed the playoffs, and nobody was putting them in the Super Bowl threat conversation.

But despite a poor outing from Nagy’s team at that time, Brady was still considering joining the Bears. “I liked the idea of being there,” the NFL legend turned Fox analyst said of Chicago. “There were a lot of things that were to like about being there.”

One of those things was the Bears’ defense at that time. Chicago had one of the best defenses in the league. Khalil Mack was playing his second season with the Bears in 2020. And he was still one of the top edge rushers in the league. But one thing led to another, and Brady eventually signed with the Buccaneers.

But in a what-if universe where Brady put pen to paper in Chicago, you could probably argue the Bears’ trophy case might be showing off two Lombardis instead of just the one.

Tom Brady and his conflict of interest ahead of the Bears vs. the Cowboys

Tom Brady has returned for his second season as a Fox analyst. With him, he also brought the conflict of interest debate. It all started when he announced the Commanders‘ game in Week 1 as a Fox analyst and was later spotted in the Raiders‘ coaching booth the next week as the team’s minority owner.

The second the news dropped, social media went into overdrive, and one question kept popping up: Is that even allowed? Turns out it is. But a lot of people argued that Brady, the Raiders’ minority owner, is naturally tied to the team’s interest, while Brady the broadcaster is supposed to play it straight down the middle.

And now that he’s set to announce the Bears vs. Cowboys Week 3 game, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk urged Ben Johnson and his team not to welcome Brady. “If I was the Bears, what I would say today is, ‘Tom, you’re not welcome. We’re not talking to you; don’t talk to our players. We don’t want you around our players. Don’t look at our players,” Florio said.

Florio wasn’t hiding his frustration. And you kind of get why. Back in January, reports had Brady showing interest in hiring Johnson as the Raiders’ next head coach, all while he was supposed to be calling the Lions vs. Commanders playoff game. Johnson, of course, was Detroit’s OC at the time.

That’s where the whole conflict-of-interest chatter kicked in. People figured Brady could use his pull to lure Johnson to Vegas. And that’s why Florio ended up urging Johnson to steer clear of Brady and, in this case, the Bears.