$300,000,000 worth Tom Brady joins Michigan's "Those Who Stay" NIL collective as over $600,000 gets amassed in 3 days: "We’re just getting started"
Michigan alum Tom Brady is feeling the hype as his alma mater takes on the Washington Huskies tonight for the National Championship. Champions Circle, a partner to Michigan athletics, is running a campaign during the game called "Those Who Stay" to raise NIL money.
Ever since the legalization of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) money in college sports, universities have used it to lure athletes to their programs from other varsities. What this fund seeks to do is to help retain the Wolverines' athletes for the coming years as their performances might have caught the eye of competitors.
Tom Brady, who is valued at around $300 million according to Celebrity Net Worth, is certainly on board with the idea and wrote on his X account,
"Happy to support our @autographcfb partners. We’re just getting started! #GoBlue"
The campaign has already raised over $600,000.
Tom Brady feeling Michigan vibes since retiring from NFL
Tom Brady represented both the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL and won a combined seven Super Bowls with them. But since his retirement at the end of last season, he has not had much to say about his former teams' performance in the professional league.
The New England Patriots have been one of the worst teams in the NFL this season and there are rumors that head coach Bill Belichick's firing is imminent. They finished with a 4-13 record. Even though Brady returned to the Gillette Stadium for a ceremony to honor him and pledged to support them, the results have not given him much to cheer about.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been slightly better and finished with a 9-8 record and made it to the playoffs. But that is more an indictment of the weak NFC South, given that their record is matched by the Green Bay Packers, who are the lowest-seeded team in the conference for the postseason.
That has left Tom Brady rooting for the Michigan Wolverines who are having a phenomenal season. They are yet to be defeated and now are one win away from being crowned National Champions. The quarterback was pumped when they beat Alabama in overtime in the semi-finals and now he is playing his part to ensure that more players commit to his alma mater by raising NIL money.