Byron Kennedy was enjoying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ blowout win over the Chicago Bears when he became part of history. The 29-year-old Buccaneers fan was recording Tom Brady’s historic 600th touchdown pass when Mike Evans — whose jersey was being worn by Kennedy — surprised Kennedy by giving him the ball.
Kennedy said that he was hesitant to give up the ball, which is estimated to be worth upwards of $500,000, according to Ken Goldin, the founder of Goldin Auctions. Goldin said the ball’s worth could “easily” go for $900,000 when comparing it to how much 500 home run baseballs fetch on the open market. Given Brady is the only person to throw 600 touchdowns, whereas there are 28 members of the 500 home run club in the universe, that puts Brady’s ball in a stratosphere all to itself.
According to CBS Sports lead field reporter Tracy Wolfson, Kennedy gave the ball back in exchange for at least another game ball as well as a signed jersey. It was later reported that Kennedy would also receive a $1,000 gift card to their team store. Kennedy told the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday night that he had yet to receive anything from the Buccaneers sans a different game ball from Sunday’s win.
Brady, who had the ball in his possession during his postgame press conference, said that Kennedy was “going to get something nice in return, so we’ll get him a helmet or a couple of jerseys or some other stuff. It was really cool of him to do that.”
Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians echoed Brady’s sentiments during his postgame press conference.
“I said, ‘You’re going to have to go give that guy two jerseys to get that ball back,'” Arians said when told that the record-setting ball was in the possession of a fan. “It was like, ‘Either give him two of Tom’s (jerseys), but you need to get that ball back for him.'”
Kennedy, despite relinquishing a half-million dollar football, is happy that the ball is back in the possession of its rightful owner. He also was able to take several photos of himself with the record-setting ball before giving it back to the Buccaneers.
“I knew how much it meant to Tom,” Kennedy said, “and I was willing to trade.”
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