The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the 2022 NFL season with lofty expectations, but it has been a bit of a rocky start for the club in training camp. Offensive line injuries have plagued Tampa Bay, including this week’s season-ending injury to potential starter Aaron Stinnie, and the franchise’s face has not been present for the majority of August. Tom Brady, perhaps the greatest quarterback of all-time, has been absent for what the club describes as “personal reasons,” but an odd theory emerged earlier this month, outlining that he could be out of pocket due to an appearance on FOX’s The Masked Singer reality program.
That pseudo-rumor was seen by many as far-fetched but, given Brady’s highly lucrative alignment with FOX, it appeared more plausible to some. However, Brady quelled the speculation on Monday, first by reporting to Buccaneers training camp for the first time and later sharing an explicit denial on Twitter.
Wasn’t on the masked singer last week. Was wearing a mask though. https://t.co/E3wg9LaC1I
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) August 22, 2022
This should at least slow the speculation to a crawl, especially as the attention will inevitably turn to how Brady looks on the field. Tampa Bay’s offense should be quite impressive again with Brady, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Leonard Fournette, and future Hall of Fame addition Julio Jones, and Brady has the experience to hit the ground running.
Of course, conspiracy theorists could point to Brady denying the rumor by saying he wasn’t on the show “last week” also leaves the door cracked in case he was engaged in semantics. Still, this was a wild one on the surface, and Brady has said his piece on the subject.
