A lot has been said about Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his willingness to take lower-paying contracts, thanks in part due to his wife’s (Gisele Bündchen for those who didn’t know) earning power.
Perhaps though, those who comment on the couple’s combined wealth generation have been sleeping on Brady himself. With sponsorship deals and the TB12 brand, the greatest quarterback of all time certainly has his own off-the-field money-generating ventures going strong.
As he gets older and closer to the end of his playing days, his post-career investments and ventures become all the more important. In this case, the old dog is still learning new tricks.
Enter NFTs. Now, going into the telling of this story I have to admit I wasn’t very studied on NFTs myself. In fact, I still wouldn’t consider myself an expert. I did do some research though, and found an article on theverge.com which helped out quite a bit.
So, for those like me, ‘NFT’ means Non-Fungible Token and...
“...more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different. You gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, which StadiumTalk calls “the Mona Lisa of baseball cards.”
That quote coming from Mitchell Clark of The Verge.
So basically, if I buy a digital image of Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl with his digital autograph on the image, I own the one and only original of said image.
If you come along the image and ‘right-click, save image as…’, then you may have a copy, but I have the original. This is where the value lies. Apparently.
I have to admit, I likely won’t be spending any coins – bit or otherwise – on these anytime soon, but there is already a proven market for the next wave in art collecting called NFTs.
So much so, Brady himself is not only going to be a subject of NFTs, he’s going to be in the business of providing them as well.
According to a story by Chloe Melas of CNN, Brady and other partners or advisors are collectively launching ‘Autograph.' Others involved include co-founder and CEO Dillon Rosenblatt, and Apple SVP Eddy Cure, Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino, DraftKings co-founders Jason Robins and Paul Liberman, and Warriors co-owner, Peter Guber.
"Autograph will bring together some of the world's most iconic names and brands with best in class digital artists to ideate, create and launch NFTs and ground-breaking experiences to a community of fans and collectors," said Rosenblatt in a statement to CNN.
Autograph is also going to be offering events, experiences, and more tangible items to bid on or purchase as well, and is targeting a launch this spring.
For more on this story, and all things Tampa Bay Buccaneers, check out the Locked On Bucs Podcast.
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- With all 22 starters returning, what will the Buccaneers do in this year's draft?
- 'I was trying to take it all in': Bucs assistant coach and trailblazer Lori Locust talks Super Bowl win
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