More and more tidbits from ESPN's Seth Wickersham's book “It's Better to Be Feared” are coming to the light before the release itself. It now includes a part in which Tom Brady told Wes Welker he wanted to sign with the San Francisco 49ers after he decided to leave the New England Patriots.
Per NBC Sports Bay Area, Brady told Welker, the 49ers' wide receiver coach, that he preferred to end his career in San Francisco.
Shortly after the 49ers’ Super Bowl loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Brady called his former teammate Wes Welker, according to a new book about the New England Patriots dynasty, “It’s Better To Be Feared,” by ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham.
Brady informed Welker, San Francisco’s wide receivers coach, if the 49ers were interested, he would finish his career in the Bay Area after 20 seasons and six Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots.
Brady informed Welker that if the 49ers wanted him, there would be “no free-agency tour, no bidding war, full stop; he would end his career where his love of football began, in scarlet and gold, allowing his parents to drive to (his) games for the first time since the 1990s,” according to the book.
Apparently Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the brass for the 49ers did their part in watching film but, ultimately decided to stick with Jimmy Garoppolo.
But Shanahan asked each of his offensive assistant coaches to watch all of Brady’s pass attempts from the 2019 season and provide their evaluations, Wickersham reports. Shanahan did the same while on vacation with his family in Cabo San Lucas.
According to the book, the 49ers coaches merely liked Brady’s film and concluded that Brady was only marginally better than Garoppolo at that stage of both men’s careers.
The rest, is history. Brady won a ring in his first year with Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is in a spot to compete for another title this season.
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