The Bucs fan who gave back Tom Brady’s 600th TD ball did pretty darn good for himself

It’s east to judge this guy but what a surreal moment that must have been for him.

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By now you’ve likely heard the story about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan who got Tom Brady’s 600th TD ball from Bucs WR Mike Evans during Sunday’s game and then gave the ball back to the team after a short negotiation with someone from the club.

Since then lots of us have wondered why the fan, whose name is Byron Kennedy, gave the ball back so quickly and why didn’t he ask for tons of money and just hold onto the thing until Brady agreed to pay a you-know-what ton for it.

Even Brady said last night on the Mannings’ MNF broadcast that Kennedy lost all leverage by returning it so quickly. Brady did say that he’s giving Kennedy a Bitcoin, which right now is worth just over $62,000 and is a nice investment to add to your portfolio. Kennedy is also getting season tickets for the rest of this season and for all of next season, as well as a $1,000 gift certificate to the team store, as well as some autographed jerseys.

That all might not seem like the most he could get but here’s the thing – it’s easy to look back at this situation and say that you would have held onto that ball until Brady agreed to pay you like $500K (a price some auctioneers have said it would be worth) for it and until that money landed in your Venmo you’d keep that ball in your living room.

I was one of those people yesterday, telling my friends I’d want $600K for the 600th TD ball.

This morning, though, I’ve had some time to think about it and in reality this Kennedy fella did the best he could given the situation, which must have been a pretty surreal one for a guy who was invited to the game that morning and is a huge Bucs fan.

Put yourself in Kennedy’s shoes – you’re sitting front row at a game when suddenly your favorite wide receiver (he was wearing a Mike Evans jersey) hands you a ball after scoring a TD. At first you don’t know the significance of the ball – heck, even Evans didn’t know the significance of the ball! – and you’re just stunned that you got a ball. I’m sure the team probably made an announcement about it being the 600th TD pass of Brady’s career but when you’re there, inside the stadium, things are moving quickly for you and you might not understand what was really placed in your hands.

Moments after that some guy from the team is telling you the Tom Brady really wants that ball back and you’ve never been in this situation and don’t really know what to do so you, after saying no a few times (as Kennedy did), end up handing the ball over so the Tom Brady can have it. Your head has to be spinning at that point because stuff like this just doesn’t happen to random fans all the time.

I get it, I do. And I also like how Kennedy said on Monday that he’d really like to play a round of golf with Brady, too, which is something the QB should make happen.

It’s easy to look at this whole thing and rip a random fan for not making a ton of money from this situation. $500K would be a really good thing to have and I totally get those who think he should have held out for more.

But I dunno, I think he ended up with a nice little haul just for handing over a football.

Quick hits: Best moments from the Mannings’ MNF broadcast… Hilarious photos of Shaq from F1… What we learned from NFL Week 7… And more.

– Peyton and Eli Manning were finally back again for last night’s dreadful Monday Night Football game and their broadcast ended up being a ton of fun. Here are the best moments, including an incredible appearance by Marshawn Lynch.

– These photos of Shaquille O’Neal towering over F1 stars on the podium Sunday in Austin are too good.

– Here’s what we learned from Week 7 in the NFL.

– Here are my NFL Week 7 Awards, which are a fun look back at the good, the, bad, and the hilarious from Sunday’s action.

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