The person who agreed to spend a half-million on what they thought was the final touchdown ball thrown by Tom Brady can breathe a sigh of relief.
As you know, Brady on Feb. 1 announced his NFL "retirement," seemingly ending the career of the greatest quarterback in football history. But, 40 days later, the 44-year-old reversed course and announced he would return for at least one more season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Hours before Brady announced his retirement reversal, a sports memorabilia collector signed on to purchase Brady's "final" TD ball from Lelands Auctions for $518,000. The anecdote went viral for obvious, humorous reasons, though the situation probably wasn't very funny to the buyer.
Well, the buyer, the cosigner and the auction house have agreed to nullify that sale, Lelands announced Thursday, via ESPN. No money was exchanged, meaning the sale simply was voided, according to
ESPN's Dan Hajducky.
The ball was thrown by Brady to Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans during Tampa's NFC divisional-round loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
"We wanted to do the right thing here," Lelands president Mike Heffner said, via ESPN. "It's the most unique situation that we'll probably ever encounter in our lifetimes -- at least when it comes to sports memorabilia. We're still not to the end of the book yet; we've written a chapter."
Heffner added the ball's cosigner still plans to sell it privately through Lelands.
"It's still an incredible piece of history,' Heffner said, via ESPN. "Any Brady touchdown ball is."
Of course, there's a slim chance that the ball retains (keeps?) its status as the final touchdown ball from Brady's likely Hall of Fame career.
"Tom Brady, let's face it, is kind of unpredictable these days," Heffner said. "Until he throws that first touchdown pass in September, this ball is still the record."
