Over the weekend, a game-used Tom Brady Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey from late in the 2020 season sold for $480,000 (including buyer's premium) with the auction house Goldin.
It's the most ever paid for a game-used NFL jersey.
An inscription on the jersey's back is notable. Beneath the game's date (GAME USED 1-3-21) and his stat line (26/41 399 YDS 4 TDS") on the "2" in his uniform number, Brady inscribed "G.O.A.T."
Perhaps it was a sign that if Brady ever hated being called the GOAT, he might have since eased up.
The game occurred during the final week of the 2020 regular season, a 44-27 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
On the adjacent "1," Brady signed his name next to a casual reminder as to what happened a few weeks later: "SB LV MVP."
Brady has won Super Bowl MVP five times but hasn't won a league MVP award since 2017. Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians said Monday that it would be "a travesty" if Brady didn't win the award this season.
Brady led the league in passing attempts, completions, yards and TDs this season.
The nearly half-million-dollar Brady sale broke the record set just weeks prior by another Brady jersey. At the tail end of 2021, a Brady game-used, autographed jersey from a game in October sold for $320,500 with NFL Auction -- where 100% of the proceeds went to charity (in this case, Brady's TB12 Foundation).
Before that, it's believed that the record sale for a game-used NFL jersey was held by the uniform from Colin Kaepernick's 2011 debut, which sold for $128,000 with Julien's Auctions in late 2020.