Tampa Bay Buccaneers Had to Negotiate With Fan to Get Back Tom Brady's Historic 600th Touchdown Ball

By Brian Jones

Tom Brady made NFL history on Sunday by throwing his 600 career touchdown pass, making him the first player to reach that mark. However, Brady came close to losing the ball as Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans gave it away to a fan wearing his No. 13 jersey. It led to the Buccaneers talking to the fan and negotiating with him in order to get the ball back.

Evans gave the ball away after catching a 9-yard touchdown pass from Brady in the first half. The fan who got the ball is named Bryan Kennedy, and he explained why he gave the ball back. "I was hesitant to give it back," Kennedy said. "I knew how much it meant to Tom and I was willing to trade." Kennedy said that he's getting some Buccaneers swag for giving the ball back to the Buccaneers.

According to Yahoo! Sports, the 600 TD ball is worth as much as $500,000. Fox 13 reported that Kennedy will receive another ball and a signed jersey, but it clear keeping the ball would have made him a lot of money. "That's pretty cool, that's pretty cool – he's going to get something nice in return," Brady said.  "So we'll get him a helmet or a couple of jerseys or some other stuff – it was really cool of him to do that."

"I said, you had to go get that guy two jerseys to get that ball back," Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians said he told Evans. "Either get two of Tom's, but you need to get that ball back for him. 'Does he really want that ball?'" Arians remembers Evans saying. "And I said, 'I'm betting he wants that ball.'"  

Brady threw four touchdown passes on Sunday and now has 602 passing TDs in his career. Currently, Brady has 21 touchdown passes this season which ranks first in the NFL. Due to Brady's production on the field, the Buccaneers have won six of their first seven games this season, which is the best start in franchise history. And this is coming off of a Super Bowl season where Brady threw 40 touchdown passes in his first year with the team. Along with being the all-time leader in touchdown passes, Brady is the all-time leader in passing yards with 81,479.

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