Julian Edelman gives Patriots fans a heart attack with April Fools’ post
By Jerry Trotta
New England Patriots fans have long feared that Tom Brady would recruit former Patriots players to join him on the Tamp Bay Buccaneers.
That nightmare became a reality when Rob Gronkowski unretired during the 2020 offseason to strong-arm a trade to the Bucs.
While Tampa Bay has largely avoided becoming the Patriots South, they recently added a little Foxborough flavor in the form of Shaq Mason, whom they acquired via trade from New England, and Logan Ryan, a former two-time champ with the Pats who signed with the Bucs after getting released by the Giants.
It remains to be seen if Brady is recruiting other former Patriots to Tampa, but the retired Julian Edelman gave fans a huge scare on April Fools’ Day by announcing he signed with the Buccaneers.
https://twitter.com/Edelman11/status/1509907700590731265?s=20&t=sFOgAkXJlPHLYGXVClU-fg
Julian Edelman messed with Patriots fans by jokingly announcing he signed with the Buccaneers.
We seriously hope Patriots fans checked Friday’s date before they overreacted to Edelman’s tweet. Much like Browns tight end David Njoku, who tweeted he demanded a trade out of Cleveland Friday morning and fooled prominent NFL insider Ian Rapoport in the process, Edelman was only kidding around.
Of course, Edelman’s Buccaneers joke comes on the heels of him catching passes from Brady during a recent workout (or … was that last year’s footage?). Brady posted the video to his Twitter account and Edelman retweeted it saying “How’s the knee look?”
As you would expect, the video sent Patriots fans into a frenzy and Gronkowski (of course) stoked the flames by asking Edelman the million-dollar question.
Is @Edelman11 making a comeback?? I sure hope so!! https://t.co/FSuUhWltIV
— Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski) March 21, 2022
Sorry to break it to you, Gronk, but Edelman is not making a comeback. Unless the former Super Bowl MVP’s chronic knee issue magically healed after one year out of the league, he’s likely going to stay retired as he approaches his 36th birthday.
The three-time champ coming out of retirement to pursue another ring with Brady would be a story for the ages, but the Bucs are stacked at receiver with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, the newly-acquired Russell Gage and Tyler Johnson.
The real speculation should be steered towards Gronkowski, who remains unsigned and noncommittal about his NFL future.
After all, Edelman is clearly content in his current role as an analyst for “Inside the NFL” and the voice of Patriots Twitter with his highly relatable tweets. Given how often No. 11 has made the fan base bust out in laughter, we suppose it was only a matter of time until he played the Buccaneers joke card.
