Tom Brady, G.O.A.T & N.F.T.
Photo Source: Autograph.io
After 22 seasons, seven Super Bowl rings and 624 touchdown passes, the legendary quarterback is retiring to (of course) “spend more time with his family,” but also to devote some time to his NFT startup, Autograph, which just raised $170 million with backing from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Katie Haun and Kleiner Perkins.
In an Instagram post, Brady wrote, "The future is exciting. I'm fortunate to have cofounded incredible companies like Autograph, BRADY and TB12 Sports that I am excited to continue to help build and grow, but exactly what my days will look like will be a work-in-progress."
The quarterback introduced Autograph, his NFT platform, with the goal of helping athletes and other famous individuals to create and market their own digital collectibles. Autograph acts essentially a go-between for celebrities, athletes and entertainers and non-fungible token collections. He’s wanted to be part of the crypto industry after discussing it with one of his coaches heading into the 2020 season.
“The more I learned about crypto and blockchain technologies, I really was wanting to be a part of building a great platform that could create opportunities for myself, other artists, other entertainment brands to create great collectibles." The company partnered with DraftKings and Lionsgate to create NFTs based on film franchises as well as sports stars.
Autograph agreed to an exclusive deal with sports betting platform DraftKings in July 2021 allowing users to buy, sell and trade digital sports collectibles on the DraftKings Marketplace, which also has an exclusive distribution on Autograph's sports products.
Brady's company has put together an All-Star board that includes himself; Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services; Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX and singer The Weeknd. Well-known athletes on the platform include Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky, Tony Hawk and Naomi Osaka.
Brady and wife Gisele Bündchen took an equity stake in crypto firm FXT Trading last June to serve as brand ambassadors for the exchange.
At this time, Brady doesn’t think the NFL has plans to pay its athletes in crypto directly, he does believe a growing number of football players may choose to invest in digital assets.
Editorial Credit: Sky Cinema / Shutterstock.com
Tom Brady’s investment in crypto has already started to pay off for him. Byron Kennedy, the fan who caught Brady’s 600th career touchdown ball, is returning the ball to him. “I got the ball back,” Brady told former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. “There was a lot of negotiation involved in order to make that happen.”
Kennedy will receive two Brady-signed jerseys, a signed helmet, a signed Evans jersey plus his game cleats, a $1,000 store credit at the Buccaneers team store, and season tickets for two years, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“I am also giving him a bitcoin (one bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.00%), which is pretty cool, too,” Brady went on to say. “At the end of the day, I still think he’s making out pretty well.”
However, Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, estimates that Brady's 600-touchdown ball is worth at least $500,000! Goldin says that most fans don't understand the market value for these items since trading cards typically receive more mainstream media attention than sports memorabilia.