The poor guy who gave back Tom Brady’s 600th career touchdown ball is being eviscerated for not extorting the Buccaneers. People are declaring they would’ve demanded $500,000 cash for the piece of memorabilia, in addition to other perks. I would hate to step into a boardroom with these sharks. They show no mercy.
Then again, it’s much easier to drive a hard bargain from your couch.
The Buccaneers agreed to a deal Monday with Byron Kennedy, the fan to whom Mike Evans gave Brady’s milestone ball. He’ll receive a signed jersey and helmet from Brady, a signed jersey and game cleats from Evans, $1,000 to the Bucs team store, and two season passes for the remainder of this season and next year.
That’s not a bad haul, but it doesn’t compare to $500,000. That’s life-changing money. And frankly, this wasn’t even really Brady’s 600th career touchdown. He’s thrown 685 touchdowns in his career, if you count the postseason.
So why did Kennedy give the ball back? He says he “knew how much it meant to Tom.”
While Kennedy’s imagined friendship with Brady — I’m sorry, “Tom,” — illustrates the sad side effects of fandom, let’s not act like he’s the only person who thinks that way. There are scores of New Englanders with retired TB12 Twitter avatars who surely would’ve done the same thing.
But even if you don’t worship Brady, it would’ve been hard to keep the football in the face of all that pressure. When the Buccaneers’ employee walked towards Kennedy, he had to make a split-second decision. Clearly, he wasn’t thinking. He originally just gave up the historic football for another game ball and one signed jersey.
In the moment, he seemed thrilled with himself.
Life isn’t all about the money. Sometimes you just want to play a round of golf with your hero. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s request to walk the greens with Brady went unanswered.
Maybe he should ask for that ball back after all.