Getting Tom Brady Signed Was Trickier For The Bucs Than You Imagined
September 17th, 2025
“Greeny, the Glazers would have had you chewing on more than a Gatorade bottle if your brother-in-law effed up the Tom Brady signing.”
Here is a fun story on Bucs history. Joe will just chalk it up to one of many floating around about the 50-year history of the Bucs.
Some fans have read about it or heard it told years ago, but here goes: The Bucs made NFL history when they got Tom Brady to agree to play for the team in the depths of The Sickness in March 2020, when the entire nation was locked down.
But it wasn’t that easy to get Brady to put pen to paper.
Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team has weekly interviews with NFL figures and this week he interviewed Bucs assistant general manager and capologist Mike Greenberg.
There, Greenberg told the story of how the Bucs signed Brady.
As Greenberg noted, generally, a team flies in a free agent and then signs him once he is in the building. That wasn’t the case with Brady because of the lockdowns. He couldn’t fly.
This didn’t sit well with Greenberg. He wanted Brady signed ASAP. Greenberg’s mindset was, Brady saying he would play for the Bucs and signing a contract were two different things. And Greenberg was scared to death another team might swoop in and sign Brady.
Greenberg thought about emailing the contract to Brady. But in his New York apartment, Brady didn’t have a printer. And with stores closed in New York, Brady couldn’t go to a Kinkos (R.I.P.) or UPS shipping store to print the contract. So Greenberg figured out a plan: He sent the contract to his brother-in-law who worked for NBC and ordered him to go to Brady’s apartment and get the contract signed.
There’s more to the story. You can watch the video below to see and hear Greenberg describe how the Bucs were able to get a contract in front of Brady to sign.
Joe thinks it was pretty funny that the Bucs were frightened Brady might go back on his word and sign elsewhere while the Bucs scrambled to get Brady’s John Hancock on a contract.
Wonder what team(s) spooked the Bucs into thinking Brady might renege on his word to play for Tampa Bay?
When Tom Brady agreed to join the #Bucs during peak COVID, he didn’t have a printer… couldn’t go to FedEx… and couldn’t fly to Tampa.
So the Bucs sent the assistant GM’s BROTHER-IN-LAW to his apartment to get the contract signed.
Unreal story from Bucs AGM Mike Greenberg. 😂 https://t.co/pf4zS1rUJm pic.twitter.com/NHJXYhJQri
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 16, 2025
September 17th, 2025 at 6:31 am
Yeah, nobody would “YES i am signing, see you soon” and then get signed somewhere else…
Liam Coen “Hold my beer (while looking in mirror practicing saying Duuuuvallll)”
September 17th, 2025 at 7:29 am
“Mr. All Business” had no printer? Funny!
Ever hear of Doc-u-sign, where all electronic online PDF signatures are binding and legal?
Perhaps that wasn’t a “thing” back then, but it seems like it’s been around for a while, or the NFL was in archaic mode and required the real thing.
September 17th, 2025 at 7:35 am
“in his New York apartment, Brady didn’t have a printer”
That’s why he was the Boss.
September 17th, 2025 at 7:51 am
Umm The Bill Parcells & Brett Favre fiascos come to mind.
September 17th, 2025 at 8:00 am
Crazy to think that multi billion dollar company that handles contracts as often as the Bucs do doesn’t have Docusign for situations just like this. Wasn’t Suh on his honeymoon somewhere when he agreed to sign with us?
September 17th, 2025 at 9:21 am
DocuSign was founded in 2003. So, yes, it is a bit of a mystery. There must be more to the story of Brady’s signing. Perhaps, Tom did not have internet access in his apartment.
September 17th, 2025 at 10:29 am
Well, Brady was hot to get signed by the 49ers. They refused his services. So, at least 3 other teams including Tampa Bay lined up. Not surprised.
September 17th, 2025 at 10:54 am
There’s this thing called Docusign…
September 17th, 2025 at 11:45 am
Maybe Docusign isn’t accepted by the NFL. Not everyone accepts it.
September 17th, 2025 at 12:47 pm
We can’t afford to ever lose Mike Greenberg. He’s the future GM.
September 17th, 2025 at 1:11 pm
Docusign is a fantastic tool but it is not accepted everywhere. I’m a mortgage broker, and while Docusign is accepted for real estate contracts, but you can’t close using it.
When it comes to these multimillion dollar contracts that get contested and held out on all the time, there is NO WAY a professional football team is going to use Docusign, giving the player any sort of chance to worm their way out.
September 17th, 2025 at 2:51 pm
I thought DocuSign also but this is the NFL we’re talking about. Were they not using fax machines just a few years ago ?
September 17th, 2025 at 3:31 pm
All that really matters is that he did sign, got Gronk to come to Tampa, help bring the Lombardi to Tampa again, and then tossed it to Cam Brate who made a wonderful catch! That’s History!!