Topline
Three months off Tom Brady’s second retirement from the NFL, the seven-time Super Bowl winner is reportedly in talks to become a limited partner with the Las Vegas Raiders, potentially marking Brady’s second foray into Las Vegas professional sports just months after he purchased a stake with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces—though Brady’s off-field struggles have mounted in recent months, including a lawsuit over failed crypto company FTX.
Tom Brady is in talks with the Las Vegas Raiders to become a limited partner with the team.
Key Facts
Brady, 45, has been in talks with Raiders management for multiple weeks, anonymous sources told ESPN, though the deal is expected to give Brady only a minority stake in the team.
The deal, which needs approval from at least 24 NFL team owners, comes two months after Brady announced he acquired an ownership stake in the Aces, which is also owned by Raiders’ owner Mark Davis.
Big Number
$83.9 million. That’s how much Brady, a three-time league MVP, made in annual earnings last year, split between $31.9 million on the field and $52 million in off-field endorsement deals—making him the world’s ninth-highest-paid athlete on Forbes’ 2022 list. Brady also landed a lucrative announcing deal with Fox Sports before his retirement report to give the former quarterback $375 million over 10 years—though Brady told The Herd With Colin Cowherd in February he won’t call games on Fox until the fall of 2024
Tangent
Brady, widely believed to be the NFL’s greatest player of all time, has also faced multiple controversies since announcing his first retirement from football, and could stand to lose millions of dollars in the fallout of cryptocurrency exchange firm FTX, where he and his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen had been major equity holders. Bundchen told Vanity Fair the former couple had invested millions of dollars in the now-bankrupt crypto firm, with Brady’s stake in the collapsed firm estimated to be worth $45 million, while Bundchen’s stake has been pegged at $25 million. Brady was also listed in a class-action lawsuit against FTX’s disgraced former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, alleging Brady, along with a group of celebrities including Bundchen and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, put their names behind the firm and were “responsible for the many billions of dollars in damages they caused.”
Key Background
Brady was selected by the New England Patriots as the 199th overall pick in the 2000 draft, and served as the team’s back-up quarterback for more than a year before taking over the reins from veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe, following an injury. In his first season as starting quarterback, Brady led the Patriots to the team’s first Super Bowl championship. He went on to win five more championships with the Patriots over 20 seasons with the team. Brady left the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of the 2020 season, where he won another Super Bowl, before initially retiring from the league in February 2022. He came out of retirement weeks later and rejoined the Buccaneers for one more season, losing in the first round of the playoffs. The five-time Super Bowl MVP retired again in February, after 23 years in the NFL, saying in a video message his retirement was “for good.”
Further Reading
Tom Brady Retires—This Time ‘For Good’ (Forbes)
Brady Says He Won’t Join Fox’s NFL Broadcasts Until 2024—Despite Reported $375 Million Deal (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/05/12/tom-brady-may-become-las-vegas-raiders-part-owner-report-claims/