NFL legend Tom Brady has a bumpy retirement financially as he struggles to wean his budding business empire from troubled crypto ventures including the ill-fated FTX exchange. may face.
Brady, 45, confirmed in a 53-second video announcement posted to his social media accounts Wednesday that he was “retiring for good” while giving no immediate hint of his post-football plans. I did.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner has been embroiled in legal drama after serving as a key early booster and brand ambassador for FTX. FTX’s disgraceful founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been accused of billing billions of dollars in customers.
Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen were among a group of high-profile FTX supporters named in a class action lawsuit last November. and effectively lured unsuspecting investors into the Ponzi scheme.
Brady also co-founded the NFT marketplace Autograph. The platform, which once counted Bankman-Fried as a board member, was steadily gaining interest from investors before a tech sector meltdown upended various crypto-focused startups.
Autograph was unable to avoid an industry-wide slump. In December, the Brady-backed startup cited “market challenges” after laying off “dozens” of employees, Insider reported Bankman-Fried’s name, also from his Autograph website. Quietly gone, the exact timeline for his departure from the board was not clear.
Brady played a central role in FTX’s marketing efforts. A video from July 4 showed a flamethrower used to melt a block of ice containing cryptocurrency tokens. When FTX filed for bankruptcy, Brady quietly deleted all tweets related to the company.
Court filings last month revealed that Brady owned more than 1.1 million shares of FTX common stock at the time of bankruptcy, while Bündchen owned more than 686,000 common shares. . Forbes estimates that Brady’s stock was worth his $45 million before the FTX demise rendered it worthless.
In December, longtime New England Patriots fan Michael Rivieratos sued Brady, claiming that the NFL legend’s involvement with FTX caused him to dump nearly all of his life’s savings on a bankrupt platform.
Tom Brady is a major proponent of FTX.
The TB12 is just one part of Brady’s business empire.
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Tom Brady co-founded an NFT marketplace called Autograph.
Tom Brady has retired and is the highest-earning player in NFL history.
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Troubled cryptocurrency ventures are just one consideration for Brady, who has brought field success to one of the most profitable brands in US sports history. He is the NFL’s all-time highest-earning leader, with gross on and off-field earnings exceeding his $500 million, according to Forbes calculations.
During his 23-year NFL career with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady earned more than $332 million in salary and bonuses, according to Spotrac.
Brady already has lucrative TV programming in the form of a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox Sports. The contract, signed last year, would have started whenever Brady cut his cleats and would have made him the highest-paid sports commentator of all time.
Brady expressed excitement about the potential future in broadcasting on a recent episode of his Let’s Go! podcast.
“In the future, I will have the opportunity to travel around the world and learn from all the other people I admire and respect, different organizations and different people,” Brady said. “So it’s exciting for me too. Whenever the time comes, I feel like I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to do that.”
Elsewhere, Brady has his own fitness and lifestyle brand, TB12. Brady’s portfolio includes many endorsements from well-known brands such as Subway, Hertz and Under Armor.
The NFL legend has also dabbled in Hollywood. He’s slated to co-star with acclaimed actresses Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field in the comedy 80 For Brady, set to be released later this year. The film is produced by his 199 Productions, a company founded by Brady.
