By When football legend Tom Brady left the field at the end of his final game of the 2022 season, he was the NFL’s career leader in passing yards (89,214) and touchdowns (649). He also left with an estimated net worth of $512 million.
Brady made about $332 million playing quarterback for the National Football League’s New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 23 seasons, the highest career earnings of any football player in history.
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Brady, who announced his retirement from the NFL on Wednesday, achieved this despite never once having been the highest-paid player in the league during his Hall of Fame career. He could be overtaken as the NFL’s biggest all-time earner by one of his fellow signal callers, Aaron Rodgers or Matthew Stafford, in the coming years.
Tom Brady is the highest earner in the history of the National Football League.
Spotrac
Brady’s performance off the gridiron has been nearly as legendary as his work between the lines.
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Over the past 23 years, Brady has earned at least $180 million from endorsements, licensing, appearances and memorabilia, according to estimates from Sportico. That calculation was made in May 2022, and any gains or losses Brady may have had since then are not included in that figure.
That endorsement total would put Brady’s net worth around $512 million when combined with his on-field earnings.
Some of Brady’s lucrative endorsement deals are with Under Armour Inc.
UAA,
+0.48%,
Ugg and Upper Deck.
He has also launched an apparel company called Brady Brand, a fitness company called TB12 and the NFT platform Autograph.
“The future is exciting,” he said on Instagram last year. “I’m fortunate to have co-founded incredible companies like @autograph.io @bradybrand @tb12sports that I am excited to continue to help build and grow.”
Last January, Autograph revealed a $170 million funding round, and the Bay Area native and University of Michigan alumnus has inked partnerships with sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.
DKNG,
+2.00%
to produce and distribute nonfungible tokens.
But not all of Brady’s financial moves have been so successful. According to reporting from the New York Post and Forbes that analyzed court documents, Brady owned 1.1 million shares of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX that had been valued at roughly $45 million. FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing, and changes to Brady’s net worth as it relates to his FTX investment have not yet been calculated.
It’s unclear whether Brady will receive anything for his FTX shares, but it seems unlikely. As the SEC has noted, when it comes to bankruptcy, stockholders “are last in line to be repaid if the company fails.”
Brady has a lucrative contract with Fox Sports to announce NFL games after his playing career. That deal is a 10-year contract worth up to $375 million, the largest in sportscasting history.
Total wealth analysis is not an exact science and cannot account for every single asset and liability an individual has.
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It’s inevitable that Brady’s tenure as the top earner in the NFL will at some point come to an end. Last year, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen signed a $258 million contract, and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed a $500 million deal the year before, according to Spotrac. When Mahomes is paid out in full, he will likely have eclipsed Brady in terms of salary earnings.
In a video posted to his Twitter account, the 45-year-old Brady said that his retirement decision is “for good” and that he won’t reverse course like he did last year.
