A Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan was the accidental recipient of Tom Brady’s 600th touchdown ball, but made a rookie move that had the team’s quarterback questioning his choice.
Wide receiver Mike Evans mistakenly gave away the historic ball to Buccaneers’ fan Byron Kennedy in excitement after scoring against the Chicago Bears in their 38-3 blowout on Sunday.
Kennedy gamely returned the ball to the NFL franchise and was rewarded with what seemed like a sweet deal for a superfan: A Brady helmet, two signed jerseys, $1K of team store credit, and two season tickets for the rest of this one and the next.
In actuality, Kennedy screwed himself out of half a million dollars, which is the ball’s estimated worth. The worst part about the trade is that he almost kept it.
“The [Buccaneers staffer] came up and basically said, ‘Can we get the ball back?’ And my first reaction was ‘No,'” Kennedy said. “I told him, ‘You can’t have the ball back. I’d never gotten a football like this, this is the coolest thing ever. No.'”
But Kennedy caved when the staffer said that Brady “really wanted” the football for himself.
“Like I said earlier, you can’t say no to Tom Brady,” he added. “He’s asking for his 600th touchdown football back, he’s the one who earned it. I just got lucky and happened to be there at the right time.”
But the NFL GOAT told ex-quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning during their “Monday Night Football” simulcast that Kennedy should have held out a little longer before handing the ball over.
“Byron realized he lost all of his leverage once he gave the ball away,” Brady commented. “He should’ve held it to get as much leverage as possible.”
“Amateur move,” Peyton Manning concurred. “If he would’ve held it, he would’ve been sitting in the Tom Brady suite for the rest of the season. Amateur move on his part.”
But thanks to Brady’s gracious generosity, Kennedy is getting some bang from the Buc.
“I think it worked out pretty well,” Brady added. “I’m also giving him a Bitcoin. That’s pretty cool too. At the end of the day, I think he’s still making out pretty well.”
Tom Brady said the Bucs fan lost all his leverage once he gave up the 600th TD ball.
But Brady is giving him a bitcoin 🤑 pic.twitter.com/upGBpmcMDS
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 26, 2021
wpDiscuz
It’s OK everyone , everyone is happy of this outcome don’t make it out to be bad. We know how the media will make it out to be bad.