LOS ANGELES _ It's a game of deception and disguise, and Tom Brady plays it well. As free agency approaches, the pre-snap hints and clues of the NFL's greatest quarterback have the rest of the football world on a hair trigger. Everyone is trying to predict what the New England Patriots star will do next.
Brady is selling his mansion in Boston. He's gone.
He mugs for a photo at a Syracuse basketball game with Julian Edelman, who proclaims Brady will continue to be a teammate. He's staying.
He's captured, at the same game, on a FaceTime call with Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel, a former teammate. Gone.
He opened a big new TB12 store on Boylston Street in Back Bay. Staying.
Brady, 42, one season removed from winning his sixth Super Bowl, is seeking a multi-year deal that would enable him to play until 45.
He only knows winning. Just twice in the past 19 seasons have the Patriots failed to win a division title, and one of those seasons Brady sat out with a shredded knee.
Few athletes have been more emblematic of a team or city than Brady is of Boston. So in Beantown it was as welcome as a nor'easter when, in a recent live chat on Instagram, Brady's supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, told her 15.7 million followers: "Well, I would love to know where I'm going to be living this year, but I don't know yet. But hopefully somewhere nice, and wherever my husband is happy playing."
The situation is complex and nuanced, with rumors swirling that Mr. Six Rings could be heading west on Route 66 to finish his career in Las Vegas or even Los Angeles, where glistening new stadiums are opening next season.
The Raiders have already made a splash in Las Vegas, and there aren't enough spotlights on The Strip to outshine a billion-watt pairing of Brady and coach Jon Gruden.
Meanwhile, in L.A., the Chargers have yet to create a buzz since relocating from San Diego in 2017, even when they advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs two years ago, losing at New England to the Brady-led Patriots.
Would signing Brady supercharge ticket sales for the Chargers, or would it simply be a fleeting high?
There are other potential landing spots, too, even with a cadre of experienced quarterbacks available _ Philip Rivers, Andy Dalton, Teddy Bridgewater, Marcus Mariota among them _ and several highly touted prospects in the draft.
NFL teams can't discuss interest in Brady now. That would be tampering. But any quarterback-needy team that hasn't weighed the merits of signing him is guilty of malpractice. It's a safe bet that he has been a centerpiece of countless closed-door conversations. Which brings us to the first, most important, scenario.
