Tom Brady (Jokingly) Planned To Cash In On Super Bowl Prop Bet
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Not only did Tom Brady win his seventh Super Bowl and fifth Super Bowl MVP Award on Sunday night, he also earned himself some extra coin. His incentive-laden contract included a $2.25 million bonus for winning the Super Bowl.
So, that's great. Congrats to Tom on having some more money. Wahoo. Some extra gas money for that fancy yacht. Good to see that kid finally catch a break.
Obviously, Brady has plenty of money, so nobody really cares about the exact amount that will show up in his direct deposit on Friday. But, according to Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen, Brady cooked up a pretty clever way for him and everyone else in the quarterbacks meeting room to game the system and bank some spending cash during Super Bowl LV.
Christensen told the story on The Pat McAfee Show after the Buccaneers' 31-9 win over the Chiefs:
I'll give you one funny story from our last quarterback meeting -- unofficial, don't get any ... But we walk in and he, and you're talking about your betting, but Brady was talking about, 'I got an idea. There's a half-yard over-under for me rushing for a half a yard in the Super Bowl. Here's what I'm saying: We all put in one million dollars, and the first time they're in two three-techniques, I'm gonna gain six. And I'm gonna protect it the rest of the way, and we're gonna fund our offseason.'
And so we were all laughing. And he goes, 'I promise you, if we have a million on it, I will not get sacked. We will not lose the half-yard.'
We didn't do it, FYI, for the record, for the IRS and everyone. It was just a joke. Just a joke. But he was funny because he knew, someone had told him, 'There's an over-under for you rushing a half a yard in the Super Bowl.' So the quarterbacks all talked about, hey, we may all throw some money in there and see if we can pay for a nice vacation or something.
For the record, the prop bet had +175 odds if Brady went over the half-yard rushing. So a cool bet of $1 million would have earned each better a free $1.75 million. For Blaine Gabbert, Ryan Griffin, and Christensen himself, that'd probably be a rather nice pay bump.
Alas, gaming the gambling system in the Super Bowl is not only a poor strategy for winning a championship, but it's also frowned upon by the NFL. So Brady -- thanks to three kneeldowns in the final minutes, finished with four rushes for negative-2 yards. He also had a fumble recovery off a bad snap that went down as a zero-yard rush.
So of course, it was just a joke. (Deep breath, begrudging acceptance that this is what must be said ... ) NEVERTHELESS, you should anticipate a three-year NFL investigation into the matter which results in a suspension for Brady and somehow strips Bill Belichick and the Patriots of some draft picks.
(Come on. You had to have known that was where this was going, right?)
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
