Buccaneers star had funniest way of finding out Tom Brady had unretired

Jan 16, 2022; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady (12) drops back to pass in the first half against the Philadelphia Eagles in a NFC Wild Card playoff football game at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Brady had everybody shook when he came out of retirement earlier this offseason, even his own teammates.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers star receiver Mike Evans told the hilarious story this week about how he found out that Brady had unretired. In an interview with KPRC 2 Houston, Evans said Brady sent him some cryptic text messages hours before officially announcing his decision to unretire.

“He text[ed] me and sent me an article where his [last touchdown] ball sold for over 500 grand, the last touchdown that I threw in the stands against the Rams,” said Evans. “He’s like, ‘That’s a lot of tuition money.’ I just laughed [and] said, ‘To my defense, I didn’t know you were gonna retire right there,’ He just sent [me] back a laughing emoji, saying, ‘There’s more touchdowns in our future.’

“So, I’m just thinking that he’s trolling me or I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Evans added. “So a few hours later, it’s announced that he’s coming back and I was happy … [With the messages], I didn’t think he was coming back. I thought he was just playing around.”

That is a definite boss move from Brady, who was retired for all of one-a-half months before announcing his return in March (though he did come perilously close to just staying retired). Now that Brady is officially returning for his 23rd NFL campaign, there should indeed be plenty more touchdown passes from him to Evans, particularly with Chris Godwin’s ACL injury and Rob Gronkowski’s retirement.

As for Brady’s touchdown ball that Evans unknowingly threw into the stands last season, that was an entire spectacle in itself. You can read the full story about that here.