Tom Brady recently filled garbage time during a Fox broadcast by claiming that the Bears quietly pursued him in free agency, in 2020. Bears chairman George McCaskey has confirmed the past interest in Brady.

"Well, that seems like ancient history at this point," McCaskey said from England, site of his team's Week 6 game, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. "I do remember we were interested in pursuing him. It didn't work out for us. Worked out great for him in Tampa."

The term "interested in pursuing him" suggests it didn't get very far. And McCaskey made it clear that, like all teams, the Bears evaluated various potential avenues.

"Anytime you're in a situation like that you're not putting all of your eggs in one basket," McCaskey said. "You're looking at alternatives. It's the same in free agency, it's the same in the draft. If the person you're targeting isn't available, you want to make sure that you've done your due diligence on all other options. So that was one option that we were looking at."

The Bears eventually traded with the Jaguars for Nick Foles. And Foles and the Bears beat Brady on a Thursday night in 2020, fueled by Brady not realizing it was fourth down.