Tom Brady recently made headlines by announcing his return to the playing field. He is set to participate in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic, scheduled for next March in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And since then, one question has dominated more than the upcoming event itself: How much is he being paid?
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Joining the GOAT for the tournament are a host of current and former NFL stars, including Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Maxx Crosby, and Rob Gronkowski. And with Kevin Hart hosting and Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, and Kyle Shanahan coaching the three teams, the event is one of the biggest football spectacles the Saudis have ever staged.
It is a given that all the superstars involved will take a big paycheck home. But the GOAT’s paycheck is the most talked about. It had to be, of course.
The first wave of speculation came from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. On Wake Up Barstool, El Presidente claimed that the seven-time Super Bowl winner had secured “an insane bag” worth $75 million for a single game in Riyadh.
Portnoy didn’t stop there. “He’s also a bit of a financial wh**e… Let’s be honest,” he said, before adding, “Now, I don’t blame him for taking it. 75 million. That’s a lot of money. Guaranteed in your bank account for one game of flag football.”
And when Portnoy was questioned about the veracity of his claims, he doubled down, insisting, “That’s the number I was told.”
Others have echoed the same sentiment. FS1 host Craig Carton played out a dramatic guessing game about the money involved with his co-host Bob on Breakfast Ball.
When Bob began low with a guess of $5 million, Carton pushed him higher and higher: “12 million… 30… 40… 50… 55… 60… 65… 70?” Then finally, Carton delivered the punchline:
“Saudi Arabia is paying Tom Brady 75 million dollars to play a single game of flag football. And for those of you out there that are like, I can’t believe Dustin Johnson said yes to LIV… I can’t believe Tom Brady and Saquon Barkley are going to take that dirty, filthy money. You would too,” said the radio host.
Like Portnoy, Carton signed off by repeating the same character assessment of Brady: “He’s also a bit of a financial wh**e. Let’s be honest.”
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After the claims of the $75 million payday spread across social media like wildfire, TB12 stepped in with a stinging rebuttal. On X, the GOAT mocked the rumor in an unusual, sarcastic fashion.
“Are we just picking numbers out of a hat and reporting them? While we’re breaking news… Elvis is doing the halftime show, and Babe Ruth is gonna sign some autographs for fans. Also I heard Dave prefers floppy pizza. Who cares about facts, right?” Brady wrote.
That said, while the internet focused on Brady’s paycheck, the players involved in the tournament seemed more entertained by how random the whole event was than by the money involved.
Raiders star Maxx Crosby summed it up best: “Flag football game in Saudi Arabia… It is so random. I don’t even know, it’s a simulation, but yeah, it’s gonna be insane. I mean, Tom’s playing quarterback. I think we’re all in different teams. It’s like a round-robin style. We’re not all on the same team.”
So while the truth behind Brady’s paycheck remains undisclosed, the Flag Football Classic has already succeeded in stirring debate, blending controversy, comedy, and curiosity well before kickoff. And the fact that March is still five months away shows that there are many more controversies left before we reach the actual tournament kickoff.
