Tom Brady's New Twitter Picture Has People Talking. Here's Why

Tom Brady is no stranger to controversy. From Deflategate to his friendship with former president Donald Trump, the star quarterback and reigning Super Bowl champ has been a lightning rod for sports fans and non sports fans alike. "It's Time to Hate Tom Brady Again," wrote GQ in January 2021. SB Nation wrote, "40 reasons why Tom Brady is the NFL's most polarizing player" in honor of his 40th birthday in 2017 — among them: he's married to a supermodel, his house has a moat, he kept a MAGA hat in his locker — and revisited the topic again in 2021 leading up to Brady's 10th Super Bowl. At the same time, The Nation ran "The Unbearable Emptiness of Tom Brady," claiming he "is more brand than man," not unlike the Kardashians.

Now, the NFL's most controversial QB has caused a stir on the Internet with something as simple as a new Twitter avatar. What exactly about this photo has everybody talking?

On May 10, fresh off the heels of Elon Musk plugging Dogecoin on "SNL," Tom Brady updated his Twitter avatar to a picture of himself with red laser eyes. Instead of doing so subtly, Brady also made a point to separately tweet the photo with the hashtag "#NewProfilePic." To the casual observer: so what? Who cares? But to those in the know, it appears Brady is about to get into cryptocurrency.

Cointelegraph reports that the laser eye photo fad "that initially swept across crypto social media in February 2021 saw crypto influencers, industry leaders and regular users change their Twitter profile pictures to include laser eyes. The fad was to signify support for Bitcoin's price surging until it hit $100,000." After posting his own laser eye photo, Brady retweeted somebody suggesting he was getting into bitcoin, commenting, "Hmmmm should I change it??" Meanwhile, Bitcoin Magazine tweeted, "Football legend Tom Brady has joined team #Bitcoin."

Getting into bitcoin would be a natural move for Brady, who is already invested in NFT (non-fungible tokens), "a new cryptocurrency obsession that includes pieces of digital content, such as art and collectibles, linked to the blockchain," according to New York Post. The Post reports that Brady is about to launch his own NFT platform called Autograph, which will feature NFTs from Brady himself, along with "some of the biggest names in sports, entertainment, fashion, and pop culture ..."