Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen - Power Couple
Everywhere you look, Tom Brady is shattering records. The 44-year old quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers recently set the record for passing yards, breaking fellow old-guy Drew Brees's record set last year, as well as extending his own passing touchdown record with his 600th throw last week.
At the same time, him and his wife, supermodel legend Gisele Bundchen, are crushing records off the field. The Brady's are money-making machines, and have been for over 20 years. Let's take a look at how much money they make, some of their best business deals and how they spend that money living up the G.O.A.T lifestyle.
How Brady and Gisele Made Their Money
Playing Career Earnings
Tom Brady began life in the NFL as a true backup. A sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, he was the 199th player selected overall, getting picked up by the New England Patriots to backup then-quarterback Drew Bledsoe. After Bledsoe was knocked out of a game in Brady's second season, the former Michigan quarterback took over the starting role and never gave it back, serving as the starter for the next 20 years in New England before heading for warmer climates and signing with Tampa Bay in 2020.
Over his playing career, Tom Brady will have made over $291 million on the field by the end of his 2022 extension in Tampa Bay, according to SpoTrac. While that may sound like an enormous amount (and it is!), it's actually relatively small compared to what he could have made. Because he was a sixth-round pick coming out of college, and not a first or second-round pick, his rookie salary was actually relatively low. He only made $231,500 in his first year, and another $372,160 in year two (but $70,000 of that was for winning the Super Bowl). Compare this to this year's number one draft pick, Trevor Lawrence, who is subject to the NFL Rookie Wage Scale enacted in 2010. Lawrence is set to make almost $37 million on his rookie contract, which includes a $24.2 million signing bonus.
Later extensions saw his pay increase dramatically, but Brady is famous for taking pay cuts in order to free up salary cap room for other teammates so his team could continue their dominance. It's estimated that Brady gave up over $60 million in career earnings due to voluntary pay cuts, and that strategy obviously worked since he won six Super Bowls with the Patriots and one (so far) with Tampa Bay.
This pay cut strategy stopped with him moving teams, however, as he is set to make nearly $80 million in his three years with the Buccaneers. Even despite the pay bump after he moved to the NFC, he is still on pace to be out-earned by the new superstar quarterback class of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Dak Prescott, whose current contract extensions will see all of them out-earn Brady's 22 years at the position.
Endorsements
It turns out that being the greatest quarterback of all time has its perks, and one of them is the number of high profile endorsement deals made available to you. His longstanding endorsement deals include UGG and Aston Martin, with the car maker actually creating a Tom Brady Signature Edition that sold for about $300,000.
He was previously a Tag Heuer spokesperson before heading over to rival watchmaker IWC in 2019. He also changed his favorite brand of mattress, jumping from Simmons to Molecule in 2018 in exchange for company equity. He's also a flagship Under Armour athlete, along with the likes of Steph Curry, Chase Young and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
His two highest profile recent moves have been signing on to Subway, releasing a string of commercials airing during the 2021-22 football season that include Curry, Serena Williams and Charles Barkley. He has also become a spokesperson and partner in the cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, which has recently aired a commercial featuring both Tom and his wife Gisele. The FTX deal also gained some attention in late October, when Brady negotiated with the fan who received his 600th touchdown pass ball and gave him a full Bitcoin in return. All of these endorsement deals are estimated to net Brady an eye-watering $140 million over the course of two years, the rumored length of his current contracts.
Investments
Turns out, the Brady's are pretty good on and off the field. In addition to the equity partnerships in Molecule Mattress and FTX I mentioned above, Brady also has his own ventures: TB12, 199 Productions and Autograph.
TB12 is Brady's now-famous diet and exercise program, developed by Brady himself in conjunction with health expert Alex Guerrero. The plan is...different, but it seems to be effective seeing as Brady is 44 years old and still shattering records. The diet includes no fruit or foods in the nightshade family due to their "inflammatory properties," so no strawberries. It also eliminates dairy and caffeine, and has a reliance on whole grains and lean meats.
As for the workout program, that is mostly calisthenics and resistance band work, as the TB12 method believes that heavy weights damage the ligaments and bone structure. And did I mention it's expensive? Of course it is! The TB12 diet cookbook is only $20, but do you want the resistance bands to go along with that? That'll be $450 please! Or the "Complete Home Gym Kit?" That will only run you $580. The supplement bundle will be another $147. Want the mobile app? Well that'll be $20...per month. All of this adds up to TB12 clocking an impressive $20 million in revenue per year.
199 Productions is Tom's own production company that he launched in 2020 to coincide with his free agency and subsequent move to Tampa. The company was created in order to develop documentaries, feature films and original TV content, and the name stems from his draft slot in the 2000 draft when 198 players were inexplicably taken before him. Brutal.
The production house actually came out swinging, immediately announcing a partnership with Joe and Anthony Russo who came off directing Avengers: Endgame. According to a statement made by Brady to Deadline off the back of the announcement of the production house, the company is working on "Unseen Football," a 3D documentary about life in football. Write what you know, right?
Brady's newest venture might be his most interesting, though. Having already dived into the world of cryptocurrency, he's now getting into the space of crypto's brain damaged younger brother by getting involved with NFT's. If you need a refresher on NFT's, I wrote a piece fully describing the space and how they work as investments earlier this year.
Brady's new venture appears to be a football equivalent of the incredibly popular "NBA TopShot" which allows users to own the "original" image or gif of a play or a player in the NBA. The user can treat that image like digital art, either keeping it for display or selling it on, hopefully at a profit. The platform involved takes a cut of revenue, and the cycle begins again. This seems to be Brady's riskiest investment to date, but one that could pay off much larger than his other ventures if the NFT space continues to take off.
Broadcasting
Generally, earnings calls for big companies are pretty standard affairs. The CFO will go up and bullshit about "we are so proud we lost $12 billion this quarter" and then the CEO says the same thing in a different order, then they take questions. Well, the Fox call this quarter had quite the blurb:
Do not adjust your screen. That number again is $375 million that Fox Sports will pay Tom Brady over the next 10 years. For those of you keeping score at home, that's actually $50 million more than Brady will have made during his playing career, earned in about half the time.
Gisele
There's something we need to talk about here: even with all of the above, Tom Brady's individual net worth sits about about $250 million. His wife, supermodel icon Gisele, blows him out of the water. Her net worth currently stands at an estimated $400 million, independent of Tom and his exploits. She averaged over $30 million per year as a runway model from 2002 to 2017, making her the highest paid model ever. Couple that with her own incredible endorsement deals with Chanel, Versace, Givenchy, Salvatore Ferragamo, David Yurman and Under Armor, and together they're a power couple only rivaled by Jay-Z and Beyonce, and they use every bit of this net worth to live the lifestyle that only the top .0001% can.
How Tom Brady Spends His Money
The Homes
The Brady's are no strangers to incredible real estate. Like other athletes and celebrities across the world, they own homes in any manner of incredible places, like...Boston. Since Tom played for 20 years in Foxborough, the family needed a home to suit his status of god-like icon in the city. After buying and selling a few condos in various Boston locales, they custom built a $4.5 million home in Brookline in 2014 so they could paaak their caaa in the yaaad like every other Bostonian. What a wildly unattractive accent. Anyway, they sold the home after Tom pulled the classic old-guy move of heading south for the winter, and the home sale reportedly fetched them a cool $32.5 million, despite originally listing for $39.5 million.
At the same time, the Brady's had some serious real estate out west. They started with a 14,000 square foot compound in Brentwood, outside of Los Angeles, in 2009. The home featured a moat, chicken coop and garden for growing their own vegetables. It cost the couple $31 million to buy the land and build the home, which they then sold for $40 million in 2014 to none other than Dr. Dre.
Also in 2014, the Brady's purchased a highly sought-after condo on New York City at One Madison for a reported $11.7 million. The condo sits on the 48th floor of the building, offering full city views of New York and provides New York building amenities. They only kept the property for two years, selling it in 2016 for $13.25 million after originally listing it for a little over $17 million. They weren't finished in New York, however, as they purchased a second condo in NY, this time in the much trendier, and much more expensive, Tribeca area. The condo cost $20 million, is 5,000 square feet and is on the 12th floor, because Brady wears number 12. Wow.
Finally, the Brady family had to have somewhere to live after he migrated south to Tampa. Rather than purchase a home outright in the area, they moved into one fit for a king. A king of the MLB, that is. Tom moved into Derek Jeter's Tampa home at the low, low cost of just $75,000 per month as a rental. However, he later sought a different home due to privacy concerns as the house is flush with the bay and onlookers can essentially boat directly into your backyard.
Cars
Despite being an Aston Martin spokesperson, that hasn't limited the Brady's to just owning the famed British sports car brand. They own luxury cars across the spectrum, with some Aston Martin's thrown-in for good measure. The family not only owns a 2017 DB11, but they also own one of 12 limited edition 2018 Vanquish S Volante TB12 Editions, making this potentially the highest valued car in his collection.
The most affordable car in his collection is his 2009 Audi R8, clocking in at a cheap $168,000, while the most expensive car in the collection is the much sought-after Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Only 450 of these have ever been made, and it cost the family $3 million to purchase. And just like a nice house that has extremely high running costs, so too does the Bugatti. Bugatti recommends all fluids to be changed every year at the cost of $25,000. They also recommend a full tire replacement "every couple of years" which costs another $38,000. Ouch.
Nutrition
As noted above, health and fitness are priority number one to Tom, and it's how he's extended his career for as long as he has. Typically, you don't hear about how much money a professional athlete puts into their body unless they promote it themselves, or someone that works for them spills the Boston baked beans. For example, former NFL linebacker James Harrison was famous for his dedication to health and fitness, and it was reported he spent over $300,000 per year on his health.
Thanks to a couple of sources, we can get a pretty good idea as to what Brady spends on all of his food. His TB12 book he published in 2017 outlines a lot of the different types of foods he eats year-round, and he dives deeper in his fridge tour with Men's Health to discuss how he eats and what his chef prepares for his family. Speaking of chef, the Brady's employ a private one year round, because wouldn't you if you had the money? The Brady's formerly employed Chef Alan Campbell, who gave a great rundown of what the Brady family eats on a daily basis. Essentially, it's "yes" to organic produce, lean meats and grains like quinoa. It's a "no" to white sugar, white flower, MSG and even olive oil and table salt. The Brady diet is strict, and expensive, but seems to be worth it now that he's shattering records while not far away from qualifying for AARP.
The Finer Things
While Brady has previously said he's a "homebody" that only really splashes out on real estate, the family has gone all out on a few more extravagant pieces to flex their wealth:
Gisele's Engagement Ring: $145,000
A Home on Billionaire Bunker: $17 million
The Exclusive Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana: $5.7 million
The Bottom Line
Tom Brady is living the ultimate lifestyle. Tom and Gisele are the absolute ultimate power couple, both on and off the field. Their approach to sports, modeling, family, real estate, nutrition and philanthropy are unparalleled and ensure that their legacies continue for decades to come. They both truly are the G.O.A.T's.
Thanks for joining me on this edition of Millionaire Lifestyle! What did you think of this format? Do you have another celebrity you want me to cover in a future edition? Let me know in the comments below, and don't forget to sign up for my email list so you can get these in your inbox as soon as possible!
