New on Sports Illustrated: Please Stop Freaking Out About That Tom Brady Photo

-

Tom Brady’s caption-less social media post has fans speculating wildly about his future.

What does it mean?!?!?!

Leave it to Tom Brady to find a way to make Super Bowl Week about him, even when he’s not playing in the game.

The question of Brady’s future has percolated beneath the surface of all NFL news since the Patriots’ shocking loss to the Titans. He’s set to be a free agent when the new league year begins in March and for the first time ever there’s no guarantee he’ll be a Patriot when training camps open in the summer. 

The Boston media has been rumormongering at a furious pace about the fate of the city’s hero. A WEEI radio host said

11 teams had reached out to Brady’s camp to say they were interested in employing him next season. A sports reporter at Boston’s ABC affiliate said he had heard Brady and wife Gisele Bundchen were spotted looking at schools in Nashville. 

So when Brady posted a caption-less black and white photo to his Twitter and Instagram pages last night, it was bound to spark all sorts of reckless speculation. 

That sort of speculation was intentional, of course. Brady’s social media team knows that posting a moody photo with no text where it’s impossible to tell whether he’s walking towards or away from the camera is bound to drive people nuts. A quick Twitter search brings up plenty of tweets from fans losing their minds about the post. 

And it’s not just random Twitter users taking the photo more seriously than it needs to be. USA Today’s article about the post includes a “MIAMI —” dateline, so the reader knows reporter Nate Davis had his boots on the ground at the Super Bowl collecting all the necessary information. ProFootballTalk’s Curtis Crabtree wrote, “Until Brady clarifies the intent of his message, the uncertainty about his future with the Patriots remains.” Even Adam Schefter—the guy for NFL news—did some reporting on it. 

Schefter says the post has nothing to do with Brady’s NFL career, which means he had to text Brady’s agent and ask him about a moody tweet, which is extremely funny. 

Whatever the purpose, Brady definitely succeeded in getting people to talk about him. There’s a chance, however slim, that the photo actually does have something to do with Brady’s looming decision. It could also just be a more highly produced version of this Billy Ray Cyrus tweet. 

My money is on it being a setup for a Super Bowl ad. Brady, smartly dressed and well coifed, a little gray in his beard, walks through the tunnel at Gillette Stadium. He strolls into the camera frame and says, “My time on the field is running out, that’s why I wear TAG Heuer timepieces—to make sure every second is luxurious.”

The best of SI

Is the NFL ready for the possibility a controversial call decides the Super Bowl? ... Would you believe there’s an article in this month’s magazine about feral hogs? ... A brief history of Andy Reid’s obsession with Hawaiian shirts. ... The SI staff makes its Super Bowl picks.

Around the sports world

Anthony Davis and LeBron got tattoos in honor of Kobe. ... A bunch of former Deadspin writers are doing a limited-run blog for the Super Bowl. ... The college football coach who said he’d want to have dinner with Hitler has resigned. ... The NBA All-Star Game has some new, very confusing rules. ... PGA Tour pro Charl Schwarzl is using irons he bought online and drilled holes into himself. ... Terry Bradshaw and his family are getting a reality series.

Not many people can joke with their boss like that

Are you OK?

How to step up your Super Bowl party

Watch out for fake accounts, kids

These are pretty sweet

Chris Simms interviewed his father for ProFootballTalk

Good effort

Not sports

The wreckage of the Titanic was hit by a submarine and the U.S. government tried to cover it up. ... Here’s every Super Bowl commercial released so far. ... Old Bay made a hot sauce that sold out nearly instantaneously and bottles started selling on eBay for $50. ... GMC is reviving the Hummer but this time it’ll be electric.

Whoops

The trailer for 1917, but with SpongeBob

A good song

Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New on Sports Illustrated: NBA Draft Big Board 3.0: Top 80 Prospect Rankings

-
Image
Ranking the top 80 players in the 2021 NBA draft with the NCAA tournament in the rearview. View the original article to see embedded media. With three months until draft night and the NBA’s regular season winding down , the league at large has begun shifting full focus to the off-season. Players have until May 30 to declare as early entrants for the draft, after which point the predraft process will open up in full, leading up to the combine and lottery at the end of June . Our Big Board is long overdue for an update, and fully expanded out to 80 prospects as we all attempt to make sense of the big picture moving forward. As usual, the Big Board is primarily based on my personal evaluations from both live viewings and on film, in many cases dating back several years. The rankings also incorporate feedback and opinions I glean from NBA executives, scouts, and others around the industry. This is not a mock draft, and team fit is not considered, but it is also intended to be somewhat
Read more

New on Sports Illustrated: The Patriots’ Post-Brady Era Begins Now

-
Image
In Mac Jones, Bill Belichick drafted a Round 1 quarterback for the first time ever—and looks to usher in a return to dominance. Of course the first time Bill Belichick drafts a first-round quarterback, it’s one for whom he could get an unvarnished scouting report from good buddy Nick Saban —and without even having to do any draft-day maneuvering. Now, the post-Tom Brady era in New England really begins. The Patriots treated 2020 as something of a gap year, with a league-high eight opt-outs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a starting quarterback, Cam Newton, who didn't sign with the team until June. They were, for the first time in two decades, mediocre, but that 7–9 record bought them the ticket to a fresh start: the No. 15 pick, which they used Thursday night on Alabama QB Mac Jones. The oft-cited statistic that Belichick had never drafted a QB higher than pick No. 62—used on Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014—was inherently flawed, given that Belichick had Brady as a starter for 19 of
Read more

New on Sports Illustrated: NCAA Board of Governors Unanimously Votes to Extend Mark Emmert’s Contract

-
Despite recent controversy, the NCAA Board of Governors voted unanimously to extend Mark Emmert's contract through 2025. The NCAA Board of Governors unanimously voted to extend president Mark Emmert's contract through Dec. 31, 2025. The news was announced Tuesday as a one-line news item buried within a larger update after the board's quarterly meeting. He's the fifth president in NCAA history and has been in the role since 2010. Emmert previously held high-ranking roles at Washington, LSU, Connecticut and Montana State. His base salary is reportedly $2.7 million.  Within the announcement, the Board reaffirmed its commitment to updating name, image and likeness rules. Dellenger: Inside the Hidden Industry of Name, Image and Likeness and the Changing World for College Athletes Emmert came under fire after disparities were shown between the men's and women's college basketball tournaments this year, specifically the weight room. Prior to the public backlash,
Read more