‘Masked Singer’ Rumor: Did Tom Brady Ditch The Tampa Bay Bucs For a Singing Competition?

Seven Super Bowl rings may not be enough for Tom Brady. After recently missing a slew of NFL pre-season practices to deal with unknown “personal things,” the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback could potentially be busy with another venture. Like…maybe… dressing up as a giant snail with a top hat? Or prancing around a stage for Jenny McCarthy and Ken Jeong? The latest theory for Brady’s absence suggests that he was preoccupied with filming the new season of The Masked Singer.

Brady took to Twitter to deny the rumors, quote tweeting a video of a person riding a motorcycle in his underwear, writing, “Wasn’t on the masked singer last week. Was wearing a mask though.” But, given the mounds of secrecy and NDAs provided by the singing show, we’re not sure we’re completely convinced.

Earlier this month (Aug. 11 to be exact), Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles told media outlets, “He’ll be back sometime around Tennessee. He’s gonna deal with some personal things. This is something we talked about before training camp started,” per Sports Illustrated.

He added, “It’s something he needs to handle, we trust him, we talked about it. It was scheduled way before training camp, and he will not be here until after Tennessee.”

When Bowles says after Tennessee, what he really means is after the Aug. 20 preseason game against the Tennessee Titans, which also happens to be the same weekend The Masked Singer wrapped filming.

According to a Reddit deep-dive, that isn’t the only date that coincided with the quarterback’s absence. Despite being at practice during the first two weeks of the Fox show’s production, he took his leave just two days before the final round of filming. The show’s seventh season, according to the user, filmed five people at a time, which would mean that he could have been a part of the final filming stage from Aug. 12-20.

Other points note that because this was “scheduled way before training camp,” Brady may have signed the contract while he went into his brief retirement last February. It was also reported that he had signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox Sports to do as of yet unspecified broadcasting duties. What network owns The Masked Singer? Fox!

Even more signs point to this being a possibility as NFL analyst Lindsey Ok fell down the rabbit hole, claiming that she asked an unnamed player if Brady would join the show, to which he responded, “haha yes 100%.” Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time an NFL player took up the gig. In fact, Brady’s former teammates Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown also made their own appearances.

Luckily, it won’t be long until we know whether or not Brady will appear in the competition as Season 8 officially returns to Fox on Sept. 21. I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out for the 6’4″ guy with an arm of steel to know for sure.

The Masked Singer is a singing competition show judged by McCarthy, Jeong, Robin Thicke, and Nicole Scherzinger. It features anonymous celebrities as they sing in extravagant outfits that conceal their identity, which is revealed as they are voted off the show.

Decider has reached out to Fox and Brady’s reps for a statement.