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Tom Brady's silly Super Bowl ad gives real reason he wound up playing in Tampa Bay

T-Mobile ponders the possibility that Brady is a Buccaneer because of poor service with another network.
/ Source: TODAY

Tom Brady’s connection with Rob Gronkowski wasn’t always so good — off the field, anyway.

The duo, who teamed up in a commercial to hype the NFL season back in September, appears in a new Super Bowl ad for T-Mobile, which playfully suggests that the legendary quarterback actually signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because of spotty reception during a video call with the tight end, with whom he played in New England before he retired in 2019, only to for them to reunite this season with the Buccaneers.

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The commercial kicks off a year ago, with Gronk, retired on a golf course, talking on a video call with the six-time Super Bowl champion, who's sitting in a weight room. Brady, contemplating calling it quits, asks him what his next move should be.

“I got one word for you: retirement,” Gronkowski says. “If you retire now, you’re gonna be walking on soft sand in a week. Just come to Florida and feel the wind in your hair. Retirement is like winning another one. Maybe I’ll even join you.”

Brady, however, didn’t have the T-Mobile network, so the call came out choppy, providing him with totally different words of support.

“If you retire now ... you’re soft and weak,” is what it sounded like Gronkowski said. “Just come to Florida and win another one. Maybe I’ll even join you.”

The commercial then features Brady at a press conference last March, ostensibly after he signed with the Buccaneers, telling reporters he’s focused on winning “one more,” referring to the Super Bowl.

“And Gronk’s coming with me,” he says, surprising the tight end, who’s watching in shorts at home.

“I’m retired from retirement?” he mumbles to himself.

Brady, 43, and Gronkowski, 31, were teammates in New England for 10 seasons before Gronkowski’s short-lived retirement. They won three Super Bowls together and have their eye on another when they take on the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend in the big game.