Redditor, fantasy football analyst speculate Brady’s absence due to ‘Masked Singer’ taping

After his 40-day retirement this offseason, 45-year-old Tom Brady should be chomping at the bit to get training camp work in with his offensive line and receiving corps, right? Wrong. He’s been noticeably absent. He’s up to something and I don’t think it’s extra time with Gisele and the kids.

What if the star quarterback is missing this time because he’s out filming “The Masked Singer,” which airs on the same network, FOX, that gave him a massive 10-year, $375 million broadcasting deal when Brady finally retires for good? (He’s gotta retire sometime, right? Right?) That’s the theory being floated on Reddit by user CANN0NFIRE and on Twitter by fantasy football analyst Kendall Valenzuela.

The mystery-singing competition is in the middle of production for its eighth season, which premieres Sept. 21. Plenty of athletes have appeared on the show in the past including a pair of Brady’s former Tampa Bay teammates, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown. Other athletes such as Barry Zito, Jordan Mailata, Chloe Kim, and Dwight Howard have sung for a national audience under a larger-than-life body costume.

“So, upon seeing the [Adam Schefter] report earlier this evening about Todd Bowles not having a definite timeline about when Brady would return to camp, I joked to a buddy that Brady was probably just off doing the Masked Singer or something,” CANN0NFIRE, who also posited about the theory on Twitter, wrote in his post. “The more that I thought about it, the more logical it seemed.”

As unlikely as this might seem, Brady is the biggest name in the NFL, and FOX has an interest in propping him up. What’s a little more money for one 90-second version of “Copacabana” by Barry Manilow? I doubt the Bucs would allow their most important player to be off for that long. But really, how long is one flight to Los Angeles, one performance because Brady’s voice would eliminate himself from contention of winning the show, and a flight back to Tampa?

I’ve watched every episode of the show. Seeing Brady in a pumpkin or rat costume would be hysterical. The theory makes sense but I can’t see it actually happening. He wouldn’t be missing from camp for this long unless somehow, he’s been hiding a Garth Brooks-sounding drawl for all these years. And there’s no chance of that.