In June 2024, California-born football star Tom Brady was inducted into RTX’s Patriots Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Herb Adderley, George Allen, and Doug Atkins as its 35th member. Brady, who quit playing the year before, left his profession with a long list of records—649 passing touchdowns, 251 season wins, 7,753 completions, and 46 fourth-quarter comebacks—all of which are sure to make him go down in history as one of the greatest players of all time.
And being one of the greatest players of all time, it should come as no surprise that his jerseys, footballs, and other memorabilia bring in equally impressive numbers when they go up for auction. Recently, Sotheby’s dedicated sale, fittingly titled “The GOAT Collection: Watches and Treasures for Tom Brady,” managed to sell all of its 41 lots, bringing in a grand total of $9 million, with 60 percent of the items going under the hammer for prices that exceeded even their highest estimates.
gold watch with many tiny moving parts and hands and dials sparkling in the limelight posed against a black alluring background
Lot 36, Rolex Daytona Paul Newman “John Player Special.” Photo: Sotheby’s.
The auction, which was announced back in October and took place on December 10, 2024, attracted more than 800 participants. As its official title suggests, the event focused heavily on Brady’s watches, which he began collecting after his parents gave him one to celebrate his acceptance into the University of Michigan in the late 1990s.
His most expensive watch, a Rolex Daytona Paul Newman “John Player Special” from 1969, sold for $1.1 million, well above its estimate of $600,000 to $900,000. It is one of Brady’s favorites, which he was first seen wearing during a ceremony at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where his former team, the New England Patriots, were set to face the Philadelphia Eagles, and where his induction into the Hall of Fame was first announced during halftime.
photograph of a silver watch with a salmon colored frame with golden dials and small silver numbers against a dark alluring background
Lot 41, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “The Roast.” Photo: Sotheby’s.
Another watch, a Royal Oak by fellow Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, sold for $720,000 against an estimate of $400,000 to $800,000. Similar to the Rolex Daytona, this notable price tag is pegged to a TV appearance, as Bradly wore the timepiece—with its salmon-colored dial and tapisserie evolutive pattern—duringNetflix’s Greatest Roast of All Time: The Roast of Tom Brady, which was released last May.
Sotheby’s also sold some of Brady’s sports equipment. His “Final College” jersey, which he wore during the final game of his college football career, sold within five minutes for $729,000, once again exceeding its $300,000 to $500,000 estimate. Another jersey, which Brady wore when he broke the NFL record for all-time career passing yards, passed hands for $504,000.
photograph of a white football jersey with the number 10 on the back underneath the name brady on a clothing hanger against a dark alluring background
Lot 10, Tom Brady’s Michigan “Final Career Game” Worn Jersey from 2000 FedEx Orange Bowl. Photo: Sotheby’s.
Other items sold at the auction include a wristband Brady wore during his “Comeback” game against the Atlanta Falcons during the 2017 Superbowl ($204,000), a helmet he wore during a 2019 New England Patriots Game ($102,000), and his diamond-encrusted Super Bowl XLIX cufflinks ($66,000).
“It has been truly gratifying to witness the warm reception from collectors and sports fans over the past few months,” Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, said of the auction.” Regardless of their team allegiance, collectors eagerly gathered to admire these cherished mementos from Tom’s iconic career, honoring and respecting the remarkable accomplishments of The GOAT.”