Did Ali Marpet Retirement Spring Tom Brady, Bucs Into Action?
March 15th, 2022
Did retired Ali Marpet indirectly play a part in Tom Brady’s timing to announce he would return to the Bucs?
Last night in Joe’s 31st-floor room at Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas with the mountains in the distance and the lights of Sin City shining brightly, the next “Ira Kaufman Podcast” was recorded. Yes, on the road!
Ira was staying at the Bellagio — Joe treats his employees right — and he hopped on the Aria tram to record the pod. Let’s just say Ira spoke with heavy hitters with the Bucs to get background on Tom Brady returning to the team for the 2022 season.
Call this a teaser and Joe will offer a nugget, not to spoil the podcast.
Ira believes, from conversations with Bucs suits, that Brady and the Bucs began ramping up discussions of a return for the past 10 days or so. In short, Ira said the discussions turned more serious because of the timing.
Since legal tampering began yesterday, Brady and the Bucs didn’t want to lose the entire interior of their starting offensive line. Left guard Ali Marpet had retired and both center Ryan Jensen and right guard Alex Cappa were free agents. Ira noted it was no coincidence Jensen re-signed before Brady put his kids to bed on Sunday night, a couple hours after Brady announced he would return.
Ira noted that Brady was working on Jensen last week.
Note that Joe had written several times if the Bucs lost Jensen along with Marpet retiring, Brady would not return.
Joe asked Ira if Marpet’s retirement was the spark that kick-started the Brady-Bucs back-and-forth since Tampa Bay also was determined not to also lose Jensen. Ira didn’t disagree.
Among tother cool nuggets Ira shared was background on Marpet’s retirement and Brady’s appearance with Team Glazer’s English kickball team hours before he told the world he is back with the Bucs.
Stay tuned.
March 15th, 2022 at 6:44 am
The March Madness folks were a little peeved at the timing of Brady’s announcement as he stole some of their thunder during Selection Sunday.
Guess Brady just redefined the term, ‘March Madness.’
My ideal world after the Brady announcement would have Blane seeking greener pastures elsewhere and Trask as this year’s backup. He needs all the snaps he can get in preseason, including times with starters, to give us a glimpse of his potential.
March 15th, 2022 at 7:01 am
@JA I think I’d rather see Blane n trask duke it out in camp for the back up spot n hopefully trask would beat him out so we can see some progress. Competition is needed even for the back up roles.
March 15th, 2022 at 7:07 am
1#bucsfan, I think Arians would go with Gabbert either way.
March 15th, 2022 at 7:12 am
1#bucs—
Agree that Trask might not be the future. But seems we could always find a “Blane” somewhere out there if he fails. My point is we will never know what we have in Trask if he never gets the chance to compete.
He’s been cast aside on every level since high school and always came through when called upon to do so.
Give the kid a chance!
March 15th, 2022 at 7:27 am
@JA
Trask might be getting the Mike Glennon treatment. They should’ve dangled him out there and see what they could get. Now, he’ll sit back there, and when Brady finally does retire he’ll be thrown into a rebuild with no one to protect him and ultimately fail, and then to be cut before the next season’s camp thus not receiving any compensation when they had the chance.
This is the Buc’s modus operandi …It’s a Buc’s Life
March 15th, 2022 at 7:51 am
Why did the Buds draft Trask. Oh yeah Licht thought he was a kicker.
March 15th, 2022 at 8:04 am
Would love to see marpet come back. Come on dude give it one more year.
March 15th, 2022 at 8:09 am
The Bellagio? High dollar Ira!! He’s worth it.
March 15th, 2022 at 8:15 am
If he has concussion issues he needs to retire. No job is worth killing yourself for.
March 15th, 2022 at 11:17 am
Rands——
If you have a maginet laying around your house you might try giving the positive pole a shot. From time to time, they work too …
Granted, it’s been a long road being a lifelong Bucs fan. But these past two years have been a great time to be a Tampa Bay faithful. Hopefully this year will make it three in a row.
After that, it’s wait and see for me. If the Bucs can land a Tom Brady who knows what the future will hold?
Cleveland, Jacksonville, Detroit and Houston have never been to a Super Bowl. Our two wins is not something that will ever go away. Things could have been far worse.
March 15th, 2022 at 11:52 am
Brady was working on Jensen last week?
So we’re to believe that Jensen knew Brady would/might come back and kept his mouth closed?
March 17th, 2022 at 9:15 am
Ja iv only been a fan since 98′. Not banging on you but there have been great years and moments throughout my time as a fan. Shaun King one play away from the super bowl then the rule changed, Tony dungy and Monty kiffin putting together one of the most electric defense I’ve seen year after year keeping them together. Dunn and alstott running attack.
I don’t know about the Morris or Smith years???? Gruden as coach and what he put together for our super bowl then. We have had a fun Franchise to watch since I became a 23yrs ago. What you think ja