Some people might not remember this, but there was a time when Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski did not play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All jokes aside, it was a big deal when the pair left the New England Patriots and decided to head to the NFC — Brady went to Tampa in free agency, while Gronkowski retired before deciding to come back and help his quarterback win a Super Bowl.
As it turns out, the pair had the chance to stay in the AFC, although not with the Patriots or the team that famously tried to lure Brady, the Miami Dolphins. Dana White appeared on UFC 278 With The Gronks on ESPN+ and dropped a bombshell: He personally was involved in getting the pair to the Las Vegas Raiders, which nearly happened until then-coach Jon Gruden decided he was against it.
Dana White says Brady and Gronk
Raiders “was almost a done deal.”
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— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 21, 2022
“I worked to put that deal together for Brady and Gronk to come to the Raiders,” White claimed. “And it was almost a done deal, and at the last minute, Gruden blew the deal up and said that he didn’t want them, and all hell broke loose, man. It was crazy, and Brady was already looking at houses, and it wans’t being said yet that Gronk was coming. So Las Vegas would have had Brady and Gronk the year that the Bucs won the Super Bowl, except Gruden blew the deal up.”
White said he was never going to tell that story, while Gronkowski said that this was “exactly what happened and you told the story.” Still, Gronkowski said that he was happy the pair opted to go to Tampa, because everything worked out for him and Brady in the end.