UFC president Dana White said he helped broker a deal for quarterback Tom Brady to play for the Las Vegas Raiders when Brady was a free agent quarterback in 2020, but then-Raiders coach Jon Gruden nullified the deal at the last minute.
White was convinced to tell the story by Rob Gronkowski during the «UFC with the Gronks» broadcast on ESPN and ESPN+ for UFC 278 on Saturday night. «I worked to put that deal together for Brady and Gronk to come to the Raiders,» White said. «It was almost a done deal.
And at the last minute, Gruden blew the deal up and said that he didn't want him and all hell broke loose, man. It was crazy. »And Brady was already looking at houses.
It wasn't said yet that Gronk was going to be 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 added that «there's so much story that goes with this behind the scenes.» Gruden resigned from the Raiders in October of last year.