© Kyle Terada | 2016 Nov 20
The Tom Brady to the 49ers rumors finally died down this weekend, following a report that San Francisco was suddenly “out” on the six-time Super Bowl champion, and that Brady will either land with the Patriots or Buccaneers. But were the 49ers ever really in on Brady?
Longtime 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco doesn’t think so, and instead floated a fascinating theory for why San Francisco’s brass remained relatively mum while the rumors swirled this offseason. In short, it has everything to do with Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo’s shared agent Don Yee.
“I would suspect that of everybody we know, the one person who has had a direct pipeline into what exactly is going on is Jimmy Garoppolo,” Maiocco began. “And that is because Don Yee is his agent and Don Yee is also Tom Brady’s agent.
“Now I’m starting to hear that maybe there’s not much of a market out there for Tom Brady as crazy as it seems. So if you’re the 49ers and you’re going to be working with the agent of Jimmy Garoppolo and you have a good relationship with the agent of Jimmy Garoppolo, and that agent also has to represent Tom Brady, isn’t it a nice little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’ if you kinda remain radio silent and let people talk about and speculate that the 49ers might be interested in Brady? Because if the 49ers are interested in Brady and that’s what everybody believes, it makes it easier for Brady to land in Tampa Bay, or get the best offer from the Patriots or whatever that might be.
“So as long as behind the scenes the 49ers have been telling Jimmy, ‘Hey look: You’re going to have to kind of remain radio silent here. You’re going to be twisting in the wind publicly, but privately we just want you to know where you stand.’ And his agent who is right in the middle of all of that is telling him the same thing, then there’s no other way the 49ers and Don Yee could’ve handled this situation with Jimmy Garoppolo other than how I just outlined it.”
Maiocco says that despite all the speculation, he believes Brady will end up back in New England for a 21st season.