On Wednesday, the seven-time Super Bowl winner dropped a new collection called Tom Brady: Man in the Arena, which included three ESPN zine covers and 50 hand-signed editions. The collection sold out within minutes and immediately started flipping in secondary sales.
The collection is based on the ESPN+ documentary series Man in the Arena: Tom Brady. A follow-up NFT collection, “Back in the Arena”, will drop when the 10th, final episode of the series comes out later this month. The finale is expected to dive deeper into Brady’s decision to retire, which he made in February, then unmade just six weeks later. Both collections are distributed via DraftKings Marketplace and Autograph, the NFT platform Brady co-founded with Dillon Rosenblatt.
The new collection kicks off a multi-year deal between Autograph and the cable sports channel ESPN. As described by ESPN VP of Sports Business, the company expects their NFT projects to “create a deeper and interactive relationship” with fans. For Autograph, the collaboration helps drive interest in sports-related NFTs. Sports is undeniably the platform’s specialty, with Tiger Woods, Naomi Osaka, Tony Hawk and Simone Biles on the Board of Advisors.
It’s no secret Tom Brady is pro-crypto. Roughly a year ago, he added laser eyes to his Twitter profile pic and announced he was stocking up on Bitcoin. He then became a stakeholder in FTX and dropped his first NFT collection. Eventually, NFT became Brady’s favorite crypto space.
Hours before the collection went live, Brady bought Bored Ape #3667, paying approximately $460,000 worth of Ethereum.
