Stephanie Douse 
Sports media giant ESPN in partnership with Brady’s Autograph is set to release its first NFTs collection on Polygon.
NFL quarterback Tom Brady is already well-versed in the world of NFC memorabilia, and now he’s enlisting the help of sports media behemoth ESPN.
ESPN today announced its first-ever NFT collection, created in collaboration with Brady’s Autograph platform, a sports and entertainment NFT startup he co-founded in 2021.
Brady and ESPN’s documentary series “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady” will be the subject of ESPN’s first NFT release. Brady’s own Religion of Sports media company produced the show.
The Brady NFTs will be available on the DraftKings Marketplace today, which is Autograph’s only marketplace partner. There will be three magazine cover-style NFTs available, with 250 copies priced at $100 each, 100 editions priced at $250 each, and 50 digitally signed editions priced at $500 each. Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain scaling solution, is used to create all of the NFTs.
The second set of Brady NFTs will be revealed in conjunction with the ESPN series’ final episode, which will air later this month. Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, declared his retirement from the NFL in February but later stated that he would return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March.
About the ESPN and Brady partnerhip
ESPN’s partnership with Autograph is a multi-year agreement. The market for NFTs grew to $25 billion in trading volume in 2021 alone, acting as a receipt that certifies ownership of a digital object.
In a statement, Autograph co-founder and CEO Dillon Rosenblatt stated, “As the first NFT partner for ESPN, the possibilities across sports and technology are boundless, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring this content out to the public in a large way.”
Brady, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Simone Biles, Tony Hawk, and Naomi Osaka are among the athletes whose NFT memorabilia have been released by Autograph. With NFTs based on musician The Weeknd and the “SAW” movie franchise, the company is also branching out into entertainment. In January, Autograph raised $170 million in Series B funding.
Brady’s interest in crypto and participation in it has expanded beyond Autograph. He’s also a global spokesperson for crypto exchange FTX, and has appeared in advertising for the company. Brady describes himself as a “huge believer” in cryptocurrencies, and his Twitter profile photo features “Bitcoin laser eyes.”
ESPN isn’t the first sports media company to venture into the field of virtual reality. Sports Illustrated recently teamed up with NFT startup OneOf to release NFTs based on historic magazine covers, while SLAM, a basketball publication, has done so through Autograph.