Miami commercial real estate investor Ron Firman had bid $518,628 at auction for Tom Brady's final touchdown pass football.
It was supposed to be the last touchdown football ever thrown professionally by sports icon Tom Brady. And for the honor of owning it, Miami commercial real estate broker Ron Firman bid $518,628 at auction.
Then the quarterback decided, 40 days after announcing the end of his 22-year NFL career, that he wasn't retiring after all. His reversal came less than 24 hours after the auction ended.
“Following Tom Brady’s unretirement, and after discussions with both the buyer and consignor, we have mutually agreed to void the sale of the football,” the auction house said in a statement last week.
"At first, I couldn't believe it," Firman told Inside Edition's Lisa Guerrero. "Is this possible? How could this be happening?"
But, Firman said, even though he was prepared to pay more than $500,000 for the football, and despite his being a huge Tom Brady fan, he never intended to keep it.
Brady's final touchdown football, he said, should not be "on one billionaire's wall." Rather, he had intended to work with the auction house to donate it for public viewing. "They were going to going to help me place it in a museum," he said.
And if Brady decides next season to retire for real, Firman said he is prepared to do it all over.
"I'm going to be bidding on that ball again," he said.
