In the shadow of the NFL Scouting Combine, a supposedly random meeting between two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks seems to have stolen some of the spotlight.
The story begins with seven-time champion Tom Brady being a part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, a team with serious quarterback issues it needs to address. Then there’s two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Matthew Stafford, who led the Los Angeles Rams to a title three years ago but who’s been the subject of trade rumors this offseason as the team reassesses its future. Adding to the intrigue, the Rams have reportedly given Stafford’s agent permission to speak with other teams to determine his trade value.
But that’s before things started getting weird.
Tom Brady reportedly recruiting Matthew Stafford
A report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal said Brady has been in contact with Stafford’s camp about possibly coming to the Raiders. Stafford, 37, has two years remaining on his contract with the Rams, but is said, per NFL Network, to be seeking a new deal that ups his average annual value from $40 million to $50 million.
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Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford went skiing?
On Wednesday, Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz reported that Brady recently hosted Stafford at his home in Montana, where the two ‘spent time together and went skiing.’
That would be quite the flex on Brady’s part.
However, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport downplayed the meeting’s significance, saying it was ‘unplanned’ – while also taking a shot at Schultz’s report by adding it ‘did not include Brady ‘hosting’ or ‘recruiting’ Stafford, despite reports saying otherwise.’
Rapoport added in a separate post on X that ‘like many other high-profile people,’ Brady and Stafford both own houses in the same ski community.
Tom Brady’s agent issues cryptic denial
Another NFL Network reporter, Tom Pelissero, added some fuel to the fire after reaching out to Brady’s longtime agent, Don Yee.
Referring to the report of a Brady-Stafford ‘recruiting visit’ and describing it as ‘an Internet rumor,’ Pelissero got a vague response from Yee: ‘I know that reporters sometimes make mistakes in their haste, but this story’s inaccurate.’
Showdown at Starbucks
Not content to conduct their disagreements over the internet, Rapoport and Schultz just happened to run into each other on Wednesday at the Starbucks coffee shop inside the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, where they’re covering the NFL combine.
With their feud percolating, there was a “serious big time media confrontation,” between ‘two NFL newsbreakers,’ according to a post on X by Eric Sollenberger, who goes by the handle of @PFTCommenter.
Sollenberger cited several eyewitnesses, as did Mike Florio of NBC’s Pro Football Talk, who reported Schultz accosted Rapoport.
The (ahem) brew-haha was reported to NFL Security. And Florio says the league took statements from mulitple witnesses.