It doesn’t take much for Tom Brady to end up in the news.
The New England Patriots quarterback recently sat down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which he revealed his retirement is coming “sooner, rather than later.” ESPN subsequently quoted Brady in a post on its Instagram, which prompted a cryptic response from the five-time Super Bowl champion that unsurprisingly has everyone talking.
Brady commented “cuarenta y cinco” — Spanish for “45” — along with three emojis (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) on ESPN’s Instagram post, making it fair to wonder whether he plans to play until he’s 45 years old.
ESPN’s “First Take” crew addressed the cryptic message Wednesday, and Max Kellerman suggested Brady was “taking a page out of LeBron James’ book” by controlling the narrative surrounding the situation.
“My bubbe — that’s Yiddish for grandmother — used to feed the birds in the park toward the end of her life, and sometimes she would take me when I was a little boy to Washington Square Park to feed the pigeons, you know, and if you want to gather a crowd of pigeons, a good way is to drop some crumbs on the floor. Some breadcrumbs. They all come to feed off your scraps, basically,” Kellerman said. “That’s what Tom Brady is doing. Tom Brady is just exercising power here in a way. We’re the pigeons, and he’s feeding us crumbs, and he’s watching us gather.
“All it takes is a cryptic message about 45, and he is in the B block of the number one show in the time slot on cable, incidentally, today. I mean, that’s all it takes is the bread crumbs, and all the pigeons come and gather, and we are the pigeons and so are you for watching at home.
“It’s kind of a recreational exercise of power for Tom Brady, and it’s kind of hilarious to watch when you see it that way. Here we are all crowded around the crumbs — ’45, he’s going to play til 45, let’s talk about it, let’s bring one of the best experts we have in Louis Riddick in to discuss it.’ Here we are feeding.”
Until Brady addresses his cryptic message, it’s unclear what exactly the almost-41-year-old was trying to accomplish. And even then, we probably shouldn’t expect much more than a guarded answer from the Patriots quarterback, whose initial retirement comment was somewhat surprising to begin with.
But Kellerman is correct about one thing: When Brady speaks — or posts on social media, in this case — we tend to listen, which isn’t all that different than how many people respond to LeBron James.
