UFC president Dana White claimed Saturday that he helped put a deal in place to convey Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020, however then-Raiders coach Jon Gruden “blew the deal up.”
On “UFC 278 with the Gronks,” Gronkowski mentioned that White gave Brady a recruiting pitch when he was a free agent, and he requested White “what went mistaken” and why Brady did not signal with Vegas.
“Do I actually inform this story proper now, Rob? Do you need me to inform this story?” White requested.
Gronkowski mentioned he did, then added: “You by no means know, I might have been in Vegas with you the final three years man, what the heck?”
“You’ll have been!” White mentioned. Gronkowski echoed: “I’d have been.”
“I labored to place that deal collectively for Brady and Gronk to come back to the Raiders,” White mentioned. “It was nearly a achieved deal. On the final minute Gruden blew the deal up and mentioned that he did not need them.
“All hell broke free man, it was loopy. Brady was already taking a look at homes and it wasn’t being mentioned but that Gronk was coming. So Las Vegas would have had Brady and Gronk the yr the Bucs received the Tremendous Bowl besides Gruden blew the deal up. There’s a lot story that goes together with this behind the scenes … I used to be by no means going to inform that story till Gronk simply mentioned it.”
Gronkowski mentioned White’s story is “precisely what occurred.”
The Raiders didn’t reply to USA TODAY Sports activities’ request for touch upon the matter.
Gruden and then-Raiders normal supervisor Mike Mayock oversaw all personnel choices for the crew on the time. White shouldn’t be linked to the Raiders in any official capability. However Brady was discussing his future for a while, a revelation that got here to mild lately when the Miami Dolphins had been punished by the NFL for tampering with Brady in 2019 whereas he was nonetheless a member of the New England Patriots.
Brady is coming into his third season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who he finally signed with in 2020 after a 20-year run with the Patriots. Gronkowski ended his retirement after one season to hitch Brady and the duo helped the Buccaneers win Tremendous Bowl 55, their fourth rings collectively and Brady’s seventh general. Gronkowski introduced his retirement once more in June. Brady is at the moment away from the Buccaneers attending to an undisclosed private matter.
Gruden resigned from the Raiders final October after the revelation of his use of homophobic and misogynistic language in a sequence of emails over the course of seven years.
