Tom Brady makes a shocking confession — and insists he doesn’t hate Nick Foles — during Eagles-Bucs broadcast

If you turned off the Eagles-Buccaneers game after the first quarter, I can’t blame you. If it wasn’t my job to break down the broadcast, I may have done the same, considering the Birds put up a whopping zero yards of offense and were down three touchdowns at the time.

So, if you were fortunate enough to spend the rest of your afternoon doing something besides watching a poor Eagles performance, here’s everything you missed from the Birds’ loss to the Bucs ...

Sunday’s game was the first Eagles’ game called by Tom Brady, the $375 million half of Fox’s top broadcast team, with Kevin Burkhardt. Last week, the Birds had Greg Olson, who was demoted from the top team for Brady. Sunday’s game was also the first non-Cowboys game called by Brady so far this season. In Week 4.

I was prepared for a rough ride, but Brady was fine. His outfit, however, was questionable — we’re not sure what he was thinking matching that shirt and that tie, but sure.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Buccaneers analysis: Porous defense, key mistakes doom the Birds in 33-16 defeat

Brady didn’t waste much time before making waves during the broadcast, as he appeared to take a shot at current Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield. Burkhardt shared a quote from Mayfield taking a “playful jab” at Brady. Mayfield said he came to Tampa to “bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”

Of course, Brady was the Buccaneers quarterback from 2020-22, before Mayfield signed with Tampa in 2023. Brady led the Bucs to their second Super Bowl win in 2021, and was fired up to respond to Mayfield’s comments.

“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings, so there was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day,” Brady responded. “This wasn’t day-care. If I wanted to have fun, I would’ve went to Disneyland with my kids … There’s a way to approach this game and it’s with the right mindset to push each other out of our comfort zone. Great teammates do that.”

“The competitive juices still flowing,” Burkhardt said.

Yikes!

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts, Vic Fangio, and pretty much everyone else trending down in our Eagles-Bucs stock watch

Brady also provided some insight into Hurts’ mindset without A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith during a challenging first half for the Eagles.

“You don’t have the confidence to let the ball go early,” Brady said. “It’s just a different body language you’re dealing with, so you end up holding the ball longer. You’re dealing with the pass rush more. At some point, you and your coordinator have got to get the ball out of your hands quick, a few quick throws, get into the drive, get some options.”

Later in the game, Brady showed his pro/con lists — literal, physical notecards with lists on them — from his free agency period and why he ultimately chose to come to Tampa when he left New England: Bruce Arians, the weather, his family, and weapons like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.

So who was Brady comparing Tampa to? He also shared he was actually deciding between two teams: Tampa and the Chicago Bears, who’d gone after him ahead of the 2020 season, shocking Burkhardt and everyone at home.

“Chicago was a team — and I’ve never told that story before — they were very stealth in their recruitment. I was seriously considering them.”

Burkhardt, late in the fourth quarter, already knew what the headlines were going to be from the game — the Bucs win, and Tom Brady almost being a Bear. He’s not wrong — the headline of this very article included the Bears news. In Philadelphia, Burkhardt joked the headline would be “Tom Brady hates the Eagles.”

There might few other things leading the headlines after that performance from Nick Sirianni’s team, but Brady responded.

“I do not hate the Eagles,” Brady said. “Everyone thought I hated Nick Foles for so long. I heard that from a lot of Philly fans. All my friends are Philly fans and they all harass me. I actually invited Kevin Hart to be the host of the roast I did; I don’t know what I was really thinking with that.”

» READ MORE: Grading the Eagles in their loss to the Bucs: Birds shorthanded, but Jalen Hurts has another key turnover

Famously, in the Netflix roast of Brady, the Greatest Roast of All Time, the future Hall of Famer took a few shots at Philly fans in his rebuttal near the end.

“Philly fans are a bunch of racist [expletives],” Brady said. “ … But Kevin Hart is from there, so I understand. Philly has to grease their poles when they win a championship. And how do they do it? By rubbing someone from Philadelphia on them.”

He did not mention that on Fox, nor did he address his failure to shake Foles’ hand after the Super Bowl. You’re never beating the allegations, Tom.

Despite Hurricane Helene hitting the Tampa area, plenty of Birds fans made the trip down to Tampa to cheer on the Eagles. Including one fan in a full Eagle getup, featuring a fluffy hat and sleeves.

The only problem? It was 93 degrees down in Tampa — and felt even hotter, with the heat index hitting 108 degrees according to the broadcast. When Fox showed him on screen after the Bucs’ first touchdown, even Burkhardt feared for how hot this man must have been under this costume.

Great costume, though!

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni’s Eagles remain undisciplined, unacceptable, and unwatchable. Should he be fired? | Marcus Hayes

The Buccaneers, obviously themed after pirates, fire cannons during pregame and after touchdowns, to the shock and surprise of tight end Dallas Goedert.

“The first time I was in a regular season game and the cannons went off, that was basically my reaction,” Brady said.

Hey, there’s one surefire way to stop the cannons from going off, although it doesn’t seem like the Eagles got the memo on Sunday.