New York - Six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady made his Twitter debut on Monday with an April Fool's Day joke about "retiring" that delivered a jolt to New England Patriots supporters.
The 41-year-old signal caller, who led the Patriots over the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 for the NFL title in Super Bowl 53 in February, tweeted:"I'm retiring. In my spare time, I'll be tweeting."
He picked April 1, a day when tricksters and jokers revel in deceiving people, for his first tweet on a verified account, and sent his second tweet an hour later to ease some worried minds who didn't recognise the prank.
"Was this a bad joke?" Brady tweeted.
It did bring Brady nearly 200 000 followers within six hours, but his future has been no laughing matter for Patriots fans, with his stated desire to direct the New England attack until he is 45 even as fans wonder how long he can defy Father Time in a sport that can take a physical toll on men half his age.
Brady, who turns 42 in August, is expected to begin his 20th NFL campaign, all with New England, in September as scheduled by the Patriots, who had some tweets of their own.
"FUNNY, Tom. @TomBrady joins Twitter, sends #PatriotsNation into panic-mode on #AprilFools Day," the Patriots tweeted.
Another tweet came later with photos of Brady staring at his cell phone and the message: "Our quarterback is 41 and pursuing a career on @Twitter. He loves football, family and Super Bowl rings, and he's just waiting for a chance to blow up. So @Twitter, meet @TomBrady."
Brady has sparked New England to Super Bowl wins in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017 and this year. His 237 career games won are the most by any quarterback in NFL history.
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