Tom Brady Had A Pretty Great Reason For Considering Jersey Number 7 With Buccaneers
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady. Number 12. TB12. It's a company. A brand. A lifestyle. It's a whole big thing.
So when Tom Brady left the Patriots to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last March, the question of receiver Chris Godwin giving up his jersey number to his new quarterback was a matter of when, not if. Or so we thought.
Buccaneers GM Jason Licht revealed on Wednesday that upon signing with the team, Brady gave serious consideration to wearing jersey No. 7. And his reason for why, well, that's not too hard to figure out.
"One other thing about that conversation that I've never talked about was after we had talked and we knew that this was going to happen, I said, 'Hey, there's one other thing here. Uh, it's a small thing, but maybe a big thing: We have a number 12 on our team, and he's pretty good, in Chris Godwin,'" Licht shared on The Peter King Podcast regarding his first conversation with Tom Brady.
Licht said he asked Brady for his thoughts on that matter.
According to Licht, Brady said, "He's a great player, I'm not going to take his number."
Licht then revealed that Brady said, "You know what number I'm thinking of? I'm thinking of taking maybe number seven. Is that available?"
Licht then asked Brady why he wanted the number seven.
"He goes, 'Go after that seventh Super Bowl.' He goes, 'That's pretty cool,'" Licht said.
As we know, Brady doesn't mind sporting a large number on his chest to show what his upcoming goal might be at any given moment:
Alas, Godwin apparently offered up his jersey to Brady, as a sign of respect and as a way of guaranteeing some wink-wink nudge-nudge extra targets over the course of the season. (Godwin, despite missing four games, ranked second on the Bucs in targets, receptions, receiving yads, and receiving TDs.)
"I think, just out of respect for what he's done and what he's accomplished, the career he's built for himself, you've kind of got to lean into that respect," Godwin said back in March, before he made the decision.
That move ended up saving Brady and the Bucs from the horrific complication that could have arrived if the team went ahead and beat the Chiefs two weeks from now, as the quarterback would then have to switch to No. 8 for the 2021 season, and we surely know that there's just no way that punter Bradley Pinion would be giving that up. Not without a fight, anyway.
BUT! If the switch to John Elway's famous No. 7 had actually happened, here is an expert* Photoshop job to see what it might have looked like in action:
*expert, in this case, means unskilled idiot who is doing a gag
For the sake of the universe feeling right, we can all breathe easy, knowing that such an image never had to exist in the real world. Seeing Brady in a Buccaneers jersey was jarring enough. The world can only handle so much change at a time.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
