When Tom Brady left New England in 2020, it was hard to imagine what the next years in his career would be like. After all, he had won it all with the same team, and at 43, many doubted he couldsucceedelsewhere.

Clearly, there was still a lot left in his tank and he didn’t need the Patriots to keep on winning. In his first season with the Buccaneers, TB12 led the team to the promised land, claiming his seventh Super Bowl ring.

Brady seemed ready to step away from football this year, but his “retirement” lasted only 40 days as he finally decided to run things back with Tampa. Recently, the legendary quarterback said his career would have been incomplete had he not played for the Bucs.

Tom Brady says his career wouldn’t have been the same without the Bucs

“I think since I came to this organization, it’s been amazing,” Brady told reporters, via John Breech of CBS Sports. “It’s just been an amazing experience for me to come to this place and be as supported as I have over a long period of time.

“I’m very proud of the effort that everyone’s put in to make the relationship work. Joel has been amazing. Jason’s a great friend of mine — Bruce, Todd, all the coaches — it’s been an amazing relationship and I’m very grateful to everybody for allowing me to come down here and experience this part of my football life which, I look back, it would probably be incomplete had I not had it. I’m happy I’ve had it.”

This year, and especially over the last few weeks while he took days off, it came to surface that Brady could have gone to other teams instead of Tampa. The Dolphins were fined for tampering with him, while Dana White said Brady to the Raiders was almost done, and the book “It’s Better To Be Feared” claimed TB12 wanted to retire in San Francisco. Brady, however, said the Bucs were the only team he was interested in.

“I read all these stories about all these different places I was supposed to go or could have gone, and I’m like, ‘I only was going to go to one place, which was here’,” Brady said. “I think this whole organization knows that and all the conversations we’ve had over a period of time, I chose the right place for me.”