FOXBORO, Mass. — Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is finally on Twitter.
But the GOAT doesn't simply just launch a new social account without creating a stir. A college football-style reveal video preceded his Instagram arrival.
So it was only fitting Brady's first tweet Monday sent every New Englander into instant panic-mode. That's until they remembered the date: April Fools' Day.
"I'm retiring," the tweet said. "In my spare time, I'll be tweeting #LFG."
"Was this a bad joke?" the six-time Super Bowl champ tweeted an hour later.
TB12 has spent his 2019 offseason vacationing in Costa Rica, bidding farewell to future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski and flat-out trolling the internet. Earlier this month, he joked about hitting big ski jumps in Montana.
Unsurprisingly, "Family and Football" is the three-time NFL MVP's bio. Brady's family has always been priority No. 1, coming before the game he has mastered, as evidenced in his six-episode Facebook Watch series 'Tom vs Time.'
The 41-year-old's imminent retirement is both a burdensome reality for Patriots fans and a welcomed godsend for the rest of the league, so the tweet either had you panicked then overjoyed, or excited then disappointed.
The first 10 accounts Brady followed:
- @TB12sports (TB12)
- @Patriots (New England Patriots)
- @giseleofficial (Gisele Bundchen)
- @Edelman11 (Julian Edelman)
- @RobGronkowski (Rob Gronkowski)
- @BumpNrunGilm0re (Stephon Gilmore)
- @SweetFeet_White (James White)
- @dandrews61 (David Andrews)
- @PatrickChung23 (Patrick Chung)
- @DannyAmendola (Danny Amendola)
The first "like" (or "favorite" for the Twitter vets):
Some of the best responses to Brady's first tweet:
And Brady's best tweet responses to others:
His first post on Instagram, in January 2017, shows him standing in the snow at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. "You can take the boy out of California... and I think they took the California out of the boy!" it reads.
One of his first on Facebook from Augusta 2011 is a photo from the set of Entourage that shows him, Mark Wahlberg and Adrian Grenier golfing.