By all accounts, Tom Brady is thrilled about his change of scenery after 20 years with the New England Patriots.
So, when the 2020 NFL schedule was announced Thursday night, we expected the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback to celebrate the occasion with a hype video or "LFG!!!" comment on Instagram.
Instead, Brady posted this to his Instagram story along with the Bucs' early-season schedule:
Uh, what?
"Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a 2004 Green Day song (really showing your age, Tom) that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wrote about losing his father to cancer.
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Song meaning aside, this is still a strange message to send upon seeing your schedule for the first time. Here are three interpretations of Brady's post, ranked from least to most probable:
1.) Brady is sitting out the first three weeks of the season. He turns 43 in August, after all, and he needs to be fresh for the playoffs. Wake him up on Oct. 4 for an easy Week 4 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers.
2.) Brady is acknowledging the Bucs have it tough out of the gate: a Week 1 matchup against the defending NFC South champion New Orleans Saints, followed by games against two teams he's historically struggled against. (He's 2-3 all-time against the Carolina Panthers and 8-10 all-time against the Denver Broncos, including playoffs.) He'll be relieved when September is over.
3.) Brady's social media manager Googled "songs with September in the title" and tossed this song in here to imply the QB can't wait for the NFL season to start.
We've already over-analyzed this, so let's go with No. 3.
Fans hoping to catch Brady and the Bucs will be in for some long nights in 2020: Tampa Bay has a franchise-record five primetime games with him and Rob Gronkowski taking the spotlight.