Tom Brady's 600th Game Ball

Written by Tyler Heep and Jarrod Fritzsche

On October 24th, during a game against the Chicago Bears, Tom Brady, who is currently on the Buccaneers, has won seven super bowls in his NFL career, and recently broke the record for most yards, threw his 600th career touchdown to wide receiver Mike Evans. When Mike Evans scored the touchdown, he ran over to a fan in the stands and gave him the game ball not knowing it was Brady’s 600th touchdown. Soon after, the equipment manager for the Buccaneers went over to the fan and asked for the ball back explaining that it was Brady’s 600th touchdown throw. The fan gave the ball back because the equipment manager told him that he would get another game ball and a jersey. The lucky Bucs fan later got in return a signed Mike Evans jersey along with his game cleats, two signed jerseys from Tom Brady, with a helmet from Tom Brady, 1k store credit to the bucs store, two season tickets for this season and the next season, and one bitcoin that was worth around $60,000 that day. Knowing the rewards that the fan would soon get, Would you keep the ball or give it back?

Jacob Fredricks, grade ten, said” I would have kept it because it symbolizes a huge milestone in a football player’s career and the player gave it to me directly.”

Evan Mulholland, grade eleven, said “ Yes, I would keep the ball, that's a big accomplishment and people are saying that the ball is worth around $500,000.”

Richard Okuno, grade eleven, said “If I was that Buccaneers fan, I would have kept the 600th touchdown ball because that ball itself is worth about half a million dollars which is a lot more than he got for giving the ball back and it would just be something cool to have.”

The general sentiment given by students from ThunderRidge Highschool is that the game ball is worth more than the memorabilia and because of that they decided that it would be worth it to just leave with the ball in hand.

It comes down to two differing opinions. One is to keep Tom Brady's 600th game ball, and the other is to give the ball back. Some people would have kept the ball, because the game ball is estimated to be worth around half a million dollars and the estimated price of both jerseys, the game worn cleats, and the signed helmet from Tom Brady is to be worth in the range of $15,000 to $20,000. With the bitcoin being worth $61,000 on October 28th, 2021. With the bitcoin price fluctuating and the game worn memorabilia being only worth an estimated $15,000.While other people would have given the ball back because getting the cleats and the signed jerseys is still something cool to have. Also if you were to keep the ball, just think of how much hate you would get on the internet.

Both of the options are valid but if you really look into how much everything is worth the best option would be to keep the ball. It would be better to keep the ball because it is worth around half a million dollars and the things that he got in return are worth roughly 80,000 dollars. So financially keeping it the way is a better choice.

Going back to that lucky fan, he ended up giving the ball back because it was the right thing to do. Although being handed the ball is a nice story, it was thrown by Tom Brady. Tom Brady had to dedicate his life to playing football. He needed to throw 599 other touchdown passes in order to surpass this crazy milestone. Tom Brady deserves to keep the ball that made him the only NFL Quarterback to throw over 600 touchdowns.