On Monday, retired football legend Tom Brady announced that he would be returning to the gridiron as a participant in the upcoming Fanatics Flag Football Classic, a competitive flag football tournament that will be held in Saudi Arabia on March 21, 2026. Joining him in the venture will be current league stars like Myles Garrett and Saquon Barkley, as well as former partner-in-crime Rob Gronkowski, among others.

Soon after Brady broke the news, the story was then amplified by ESPN's Adam Schefter (as is typically the case), who sent out a tweet of his own to presumably further the GOAT's reach.

But Schefter, in quite the internet-savvy move, opted to phrase his post in an extremely heart-stopping way, one that almost made this seem like a different bombshell entirely.

Specifically, the insider wrote, "Tom Brady is coming out of retirement, sort of," before listing some of the other big names involved in the event—knowing very well that fans would see the words "Tom Brady" and "coming out of retirement" and stop their scroll in its tracks.

Hilariously, early reactions to the tweet had more to do with Schefter's provocative phrasing than the news itself. Take a peek at that below:

To be fair, Brady himself did use similar language while announcing themove alongside Saudi Royal Court adviser Turki Alalshikh, so maybe it wasn't all Schefter's doing entirely. And the post did get our attention, so maybe it was the right choice after all, even if we had to pick our jaws up off the floor when we finished reading.

The TL;DR? Brady isn't truly "un-retiring," but we will get to watch him play football in a semi-competitive capacity again soon.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Fans Were Not Happy With Adam Schefter's Phrasing of Tom Brady Flag Football News.

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