After buying into the WNBA’s Aces earlier this year, a head-turning Tom Brady Raiders deal means the GOAT’s portfolio now boasts its most intriguing asset yet.
On Thursday, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told NFL Network that he had invited franchise legend and all-around gridiron GOAT Tom Brady back to Foxborough for the team’s 2023 home opener on Sept. 10 at Gillette Stadium. Just months removed from his second (and almost certainly final) retirement from football following a coda in Tampa Bay, Boston homers and TB12 acolytes far and wide surely felt an unmistakable tingling of giddy catharsis reminiscing about Brady’s two decades of dominance with the Pats during a run that saw him win six Super Bowl rings and three league MVP awards.
Just one day later, however, an entirely different team on an entirely different end of the country was suddenly gearing up to take an even bigger, more Bradylicious victory lap.
As reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Seth Wickersham on May 12, Tom Terrific was in “deep discussions” to join the Las Vegas Raiders’ Mark Davis-led ownership as a minority stakeholder. On Monday, those discussions ended in a deal that’s set to go final pending approval from the league’s other owners, as reported by insider Albert Breer.
While former athletes have joined the ranks of sports team investors in increasing numbers over the past several years — Brady recently became a minority partner with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, likewise led by Mark Davis — the eye-popping cost of entry in the NFL has precluded nearly all of its own retired stars from buying into their former league.
But of course, it’s only fitting that the NFL’s all-time highest earner would continue to break various molds as he pens his second act.
Not for nothing, Brady earned $332.96 million in on-field salary alone during his playing career, to say nothing of his sprawling portfolio of entrepreneurial ventures and the reported $375 million bag waiting for him at Fox Sports when he makes an expected plunge into broadcasting next year. If anyone was going to make this leap, particularly so proximate to his retirement from the game, he’s him.
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Intriguingly enough, Vegas signed former TB12 teammate Jimmy Garoppolo as its new starting quarterback this offseason. In case you were wondering, however, a source told ESPN that this Tom Brady Raiders investment would not be accompanied by any manner of active influence over team operations.
As NBC Sports’ Mike Florio and others have noted, Brady was reportedly involved in similar discussions in 2022 with majority partner Stephen Ross to join the Miami Dolphins as a minority investor. For what it’s worth, Forbes’ most recent round of NFL valuations places the Fins No. 13 overall in the NFL at $4.6 billion, with the Raiders checking in at No. 9 at $5.1 billion.
If you know even a little about Brady’s career, you know that big numbers follow him wherever he goes. At this rate, the question of whether he becomes an NFL owner is when-not-if; once the confetti is ready to drop, you’ll be looking at a former sixth-round draft pick who just took one huge step closer to billionaire status.
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