Tom Brady Should be in the Past for 49ers
I wanted the 49ers to keep Jimmy Garoppolo.
I was angry that the 49ers did not trade for Tom Brady.
Do I make any sense? We all are enraged that the 49ers did not pursue Tom Brady. This front office did not want to draft Patrick Mahomes. Were they out of their minds to say no to Brady? Let us dial down a notch and try to analyze what happened.
During the offseason, we all got a peak of Tom Brady talking on television. He left all of us wondering in the dark with the quote, "They're Sticking With THAT MF'ER?" There were speculations about the team Brady meant. With the latest book by Seth Wickersham, the story is back.
The reported details indicate it was up to the 49ers to go ahead with the Brady trade. That leaves all of us livid as to why the front office did not make such an obvious decision. But the question we have to ask is, "Was that the easiest decision ever to make?" The answer is more complex.
Let us start with Garoppolo's side of the story.
If not for Patriots owner Robert Kraft, head coach Bill Belichick would have traded away Brady. Belichick wanted to win a Super Bowl without Brady and already groomed the successor -- Garoppolo. Brady had doubts about his future yet kept on performing to win. In the process, it was evident that Belichick could not keep Garoppolo as the eventual successor. Once he arrived in Santa Clara, everyone expected Garoppolo to deliver, and he did only that by going 5-0 in 2017 and a delivering a Super Bowl appearance in 2019.
Now to Shanahan's side of the story.
Once Garoppolo made it to the Super Bowl, things became more complicated. How could you trade away the quarterback who is more than a decade younger than Brady, a favorite among the fanbase and players? You could not make the argument that Garoppolo was injury-prone at the time. Garoppolo just completed an entire season without missing time and looked in prime shape to guide the Revenge Tour.
Then came the most significant factor that nobody could have predicted.
Brady went on to win the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I never thought that the team with a 9-7 regular-season record the season before would turn around things in such a dramatic fashion. Even though the achievement by the Brady-led Buccaneers is nothing short of admirable, we have to weigh in the circumstances as well. On their way to the Super Bowl, the Buccaneers won three road games in almost empty stadiums. Winning playoff games in front of ferocious crowds is always a monumental task. They had the advantage of not having the opposition x-factor in the stadiums.
It would have been devastating for Garoppolo if the team traded him for Brady. The narrative would have been that the 49ers brought in Brady to finish the job where Garoppolo failed.
Brady took vital assets along with him to the Buccaneers. The episode had a fairy tale ending. But Shanahan would have been put under immense pressure if he went ahead with the wild idea. Imagine what would have happened if the Garoppolo-Belichick union prospered in years to come. Shanahan would be banished from the head coaching job and land somewhere else labeled as a fool.
For me, writing this article was simple. I had all the facts in front of me to compile. But Shanahan did not. He always has to make decisions with what-if scenarios.
Right now, Brady should be in the past. The 49ers have made more blunders than not trading for Brady. Given the situation, they made the correct and safe decision. It is time to look forward to Trey Lance, where the team has a realistic opportunity to achieve something significant.
