Is Tom Brady’s public Patriots farewell an effort to goose the market?

[Bolt]

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As of Monday at noon ET, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady became eligible to agree to terms with any team. He hasn’t.

Instead, he went to social media on Tuesday and said goodbye to the Patriots while also making it clear that he doesn’t know where he’ll go next. If he truly doesn’t know, it’s possible that his public farewell is aimed at least in part at goosing the market.

Even as it became more and more clear that Brady could be leaving, many refused to believe it. And if potentially interested teams believed that any offer they’d make would get shopped back to New England as leverage to sign a new contract with the Patriots, why bother to even make him an offer?

Today’s message is clear: Go ahead and bother. Tom is free and clear and looking for a new home.

While much of what Brady wrote (or, more accurately, what someone he pays wrote and he signed off on) was aimed at securing the high road when the time comes for Patriots fans to place blame, the land rush that many expected hasn’t happened. Brady’s statement surely is aimed at shaking the trees to get more teams than the Chargers and the Buccaneers to make offers (the Bears, for example, are looking for a quarterback), and also at perhaps getting the Chargers and the Buccaneers to sweeten their proposed deals.