Tom Brady's mysterious absence is one of the more fascinating storylines of the NFL preseason.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback remains away from the team with an excused absence. Details have been quite sparse, which is actually kind of surprising given how much Brady information gets out there these days. There's also no real sense of when he'll actually be back, adding to the intrigue.
All we really even kind of know is that this has something to do with work-life balance, which is extremely vague.
So, what gives? As is the case when a lot of peculiar things happen, we go to Reddit for at least one possible explanation. A viral post on the website has one quasi-believable theory as to why Brady isn't with the team right now: He's filming the next season of "The Masked Singer" TV show.
Reddit user CANN0NFIRE on Thursday night posted the take to the DynastyFF subreddit, admittedly calling it "theory and wild speculation." But it's still entertaining if nothing else.
"Brady could have agreed to be on the show back when he was briefly retired and then still had it as an obligation to be fulfilled upon rejoining the team. The leave of absence could have been a condition to him coming back. All of this is clearly speculation, but I started to really believe this was the reason for his leave of absence."
The post goes on and on, but it also includes what the user calls "the smoking gun," which is based on the filming dates.
"Right on the main page it shows that there is a filming session supposed to occur on August 20. That is the exact same date as the Bucs-Titans preseason game ... the one which Brady said he would definitely be out through."
Other filming dates, per the Reddit user, were July 24-29, Aug. 2-9 and Aug. 12-20.
"Well, dern," the user writes, "the Bucs started training camp on July 27 and Brady was in attendance until August 10, so doesn't seem likely that he was filming for the Masked Singer."
But wait! Wikipedia also told this person that not everyone films at the same time. And it goes on and on and on.
As others have also pointed out, too: Brady recently signed a massive deal to do analysis for FOX once his career ends. "The Masked Singer," of course, is one of the biggest shows on FOX.
By the way: This random Reddit user isn't the only one who put forth the theory Thursday.
There are a lot of dots that can be connected, we'll give them that. And a lack of concrete information and details often leads to, well, wild speculation.
Crazier things have happened ... right?
