How many players in NFL history can boast of earning a Heisman Trophy and a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? That list is a short one. Just ten players long, in fact. And it includes legendary Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown.
To commemorate that accomplishment, Brown is the first of the select group to debut his own NFT. The H2H series will be released by Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Company along with Dolphin Entertainment and will feature others such as Doak Walker and Earl Campbell soon to follow.
For those unfamiliar, NFT means Non-Fungible Token. To put it simply, it’s a digital collectible. But this isn’t just like a football card or an autograph. This is next-level stuff. What Tim Brown refers to as a “quantitative leap” from the sports memorabilia that existed during his playing days. The kind of thing that many rabid Raiders or Tim Brown fans will want to own.
“I didn’t know anything about this a couple months ago,” Brown told Raiders Wire on Monday. “So, when it popped up as a memorabilia piece where your fans can possibly have something that is really special, I was all in. I’ve been signing autographs for people since I was 19 years old. Most of the time you’re signing the same pieces; you’re signing the same cards or pictures and jerseys or whatever and really nothing new has come on the scene for a while, as far as NFL players anyway, and this was the opportunity to throw something out there for your fans that is a piece of art that they’ve never seen before that they can own by themselves, that one person can own. We’re doing the Playbooks deal too. I think for me just being excited about reconnecting with the fans in a different way was high on my list.”
In total, there are two NFT’s. The first is a one-of-a-kind collectible which is being auctioned off starting today and going over the next week and includes a surprise virtual meet-and-greet call from Tim to the auction winner’s person of choice, a personalized Notre Dame or Raiders official jersey and two tickets to a future Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony of the winner’s choosing.
The second release is a limited edition (100) collectible called Playbooks. Those collectibles sell for $1500 each with the person who buys the 100th one receiving their choice of a personalized Notre Dame or Raiders official helmet.
What these two NFT’s promise is to allow fans to connect with Tim Brown on a deeper level than perhaps they ever had before.
For Brown, this NFT is about navigating his football journey from lining up in a three-point stance in the backfield at Notre Dame to coming into the league as primarily a return man, to an injury threatening to cut down his career just as it was beginning, to ultimately becoming the most prolific receiver in Raiders history.
“It’s just an incredible thing to be where I am right now, because in my mind I knew I could play in the NFL as a punt returner and a kick returner,” Brown said of the start of his NFL career. “I knew I could do that. I didn’t know all the little nuances of being a receiver, because in my mind, even when I was in high school and in college, I always thought of myself as a running back who was a receiver, even though I played the receiver position most of the time.”
“If you’re a real Raider fan . . . [you] know how this wasn’t easy for me. And my relationship with Al Davis, both good and bad, so I think the real fans that followed me over the years know that,” Brown added. “Is it possible to get all that into an NFT? Maybe not really, but at the same time I think some of the things that you’ll hear and see will remind you of some of the things that I’ve gone through in my career.”
In the 1-of-1 NFT, Brown narrates the experience in which the viewer is led on a journey through the highlights of his career. It was created by Dolphin Entertainment’s Digital Studio in partnership with Shane Griffin, an award-winning visual artist, director and NFT developer. Griffin’s recent work includes projects with Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West, and brands such as Nike, Apple, Adidas and Givenchy. He is a winner of PRINT Magazine’s New Visual Artist and ADC Young Guns award.
The second offering will be the first in an exclusive H2H limited edition series of NFTs which will be available on a mass scale. This series will be spearheaded by the award winning partners at Reference.
This NFT auction will take place on OpenSea digital marketplace from May 17th (today) thru Monday May 24th.
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