The football Tom Brady threw to complete the last touchdown pass of his NFL career is going up for auction with Lelands on Sunday. A fan, who has chosen to remain anonymous, caught the ball in the stands after WR Mike Evans threw it to him.
As you know, Evans caught hell earlier in the season for throwing a Tom Brady ball into the stands, not knowing he had just made history.
“You gotta understand,” Evans told For The Win. “Before Tom came to the Bucs I was always throwing balls away to the fans, I showed love to the fans by giving them a souvenir. When Tom came they started putting people in the back of the end zones and were chasing me down and saying this is a memorable ball. I wasn’t very aware but in the heat of the moment that stuff happens.”
This time around, Evans had no clue that the 44-year-old QB would be retiring from the league. The Bucs’ staff retrieved the 600 ball and rewarded the fan, but no one from the staff asked for the ball back this time around because they were also unaware of how important it would be.
“That one is unpredictable,” Evans said. “I didn’t know he was going to retire. I’m thinking we might have to throw another touchdown. I’m sure he doesn’t care about that ball in a losing effort.”
“Everybody was screaming, and I’m just standing there, clapping, and the ball hits me pretty much in the chest,” the seller said. “I tucked it in like I was a running back, because I was sure I was going to get tackled by four or five different people to grab the ball, but that never happened. My wife was still cheering and I told her, ‘Look, look, I got the ball.'”
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“We stayed for the whole game and I just kind of held it like a baby and we watched them come back and lose,” the seller told ESPN. “We stood around for a while while the players walked off the field, then I tucked it in my jacket and we just walked out like normal. Nobody came up to us or anything.”
The ball is expected to fetch at least $1 million. Last June, Lelands sold the football Brady threw to complete his first NFL touchdown for $428,841.
The seller wasn’t aware of the potential value until after Brady announced his retirement. Now that he knows what he has, it’s potentially life-changing money.
“Retirement was the first thing we thought of,” the seller said. “Since then, we thought maybe we don’t retire, but it’s a nice nest egg for when we do. Whatever happens, I would love to have as many people see the football and for it go in the Hall of Fame on display.
“It should go somewhere everybody can enjoy it; it’s a piece of history.”
