2000 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Autograph #144 Tom Brady BGS 9.5/Autograph 10 | Rookie Card | Gem Mint | On-Card Autograph

Every hero has their origin, and this is where the NFL’s greatest began his journey.

A seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, 15-time Pro Bowler, and 3-time NFL MVP Tom Brady has, through his greatness, generated a number of historic artifacts and moments. Paralleling appropriately to his stature in the game, his 2000 Playoff Contenders rookie autograph is to many the most iconic card in the football hobby.

The card commemorates Brady’s rookie season after being selected 199th overall by the Patriots in the 2000 NFL Draft. Though only seeing the field for a handful of snaps his rookie year, Brady was thrust into the starting job in 2001, where he led the Patriots to their first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history over the St. Louis Rams.

The piece, as well as Tom Brady rookie cards generally, is made especially rare by the fact that so few were printed due to his draft stock. Compared to top of the draft players, especially in today’s game, who are featured in a variety of sets and variations, Brady’s status as a sixth rounder curbed his print run at large. Brady only had about 135 main line card designs printed for the 2000 product year and only 13 among them featured an autograph. Of these, just four featured Brady in his iconic number 12 Patriots uniform. 

This card features an on-card autograph and has been authenticated and deemed to be in Gem Mint condition, receiving a grade of 9.5 from Beckett Grading Services (BGS). The autograph was graded and received a 10 from BGS. It is among the highest condition copies of the card ever certified and, at the time of cataloging, no other example of this card has been graded higher by Beckett. 

The BGS certificate number for this card is: 0009012409.

Going Deeper - Tom Brady

Humble Beginnings and the Road to Greatness

There are only a few athletes who are near-universally accepted as the greatest in their sport: Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth—and Tom Brady.

While most of them entered their respective sports as highly touted prospects, Brady’s journey began as an unassuming sixth-round pick of the New England Patriots in the 2000 NFL Draft.

During ESPN’s segment covering the 199th pick, resident draft expert Mel Kiper remarked, “[Brady] throws a very catchable ball.” Watching the segment today, there is little evidence Kiper realized he was talking about the player who threw perhaps the most catchable ball in the history of the sport. Brady holds the record for the most passing yards, completions, and touchdowns in NFL history.

Kiper would go on to talk about Brady’s perceived weaknesses: “The question is going to be mobility. He only runs a 5.25 forty [yard dash] and of course when you have those edge pass rushers, you have to avoid the initial defensive end, the initial pass rusher. Can he do that at the pro level?”

Brady’s seemingly pedestrian 2000 NFL Combine performance (his 40-yard dash was on par with some offensive lineman) and the now infamous photo of his less-than-strapping, unathletic physique, have become part of the lore for what many consider the best draft pick of all time. Every year come draft time, that photo of Brady gets circulated through social media as teams hope to strike gold again as the New England Patriots did in the year 2000.

Brady would acknowledge as much when he posted the picture to his personal Instagram years later, with the caption:

“19 years ago today the @patriots took a chance on the guy in this photo: Me (199) 😂. Thank you to EVERYONE who’s helped me to prove them right! PS: Did they stop taking these photos after mine?? 🤣🤣”

What followed, of course, is legend. Brady would go on to join the Patriots as their fourth-string quarterback and was, by no means, a lock to even make the team. By the following season however, he was thrust into a starting role after veteran starter Drew Bledsoe sustained an injury in week two. That opportunity was all Brady needed. He would lead the Patriots to a 20-17 victory in Super Bowl XXXVI that year and become the youngest Super Bowl MVP.

Brady would win five more Super Bowls with the New England Patriots as well as one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on his way to becoming the best quarterback, and arguably player, in the history of the sport. No NFL player has ever come close to being as good for as long. If you split Brady’s career into segments, you would find two, maybe even three, Hall of Fame resumes.

In 2024, Brady began the next chapter of his storied career in a new arena as the primary color commentator for FOX’s Sunday NFL broadcasts.