Tom Brady’s high school Cadillac donation disappears after $367,000,000 raffle from 2004
NFL legend Tom Brady won his second MVP Award in 2004 when the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. In the process, he earned a sleek Cadillac XLR Roadster.
Interestingly, this was not his first. In 2002, when he won his first Super Bowl MVP award after the Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams, he had earned a Cadillac XLR Roadster.
Instead of keeping both the luxury cars, TB12 wanted to make a difference and went ahead to donate one of his Cadillac XLR Roadsters to his alma mater, Junipero Serra High School. Brady decided to raffle it off in order to raise funds for the San Mateo-based school.
It turned out that the lottery was a huge hit! Each ticket was sold for $25 each and the event raised a sum of $367,000 – one of the Junipero Serra High School's most profitable fundraisers ever. The lucky man, Charlie Affrunti, who won the raffle, was a local resident who also had close ties with Tom Brady's alma mater.
Interestingly, Charlie's sons, Bernie Affrunti and Brian Affrunti, had played baseball with Brady in the 90s, when the seven-time Super Bowl champion played the sport in high school.
Winning TB12's Cadillac XLR Roadster, valued at $76,000, was a dream come true for Affrunti, but sadly, that dream came with strings attached.
As per U.S. tax laws, raffle winners are bound to pay taxes based on the prize’s market value. If we convert it into percentages, the amount totals roughly 25% of its worth.
For Charlie Affrunti, this meant he had to shell away a tax bill of $19,000 if he wanted to keep the Cadillac. Given the fact that such a steep cost is not feasible to bear, it is very much possible that Affrunti might have sold the car to avoid the high expense.
What's mysterious is that there are no records to confirm the sale of Tom Brady's Cadillac. In fact, Affrunti himself has remained tight-lipped for 20 years and declined all sorts of interviews, which makes it more difficult to know about the car's fate.
While Tom Brady went on to win three more Super Bowl MVP awards – in 2015, 2017 and 2021, the traditional practice of gifting Cadillacs to MVP winners ended after 2015.
Tom Brady was the last Super Bowl MVP winner to get a car as a prize
Ahead of the 2015 NFL season, Hyundai became the NFL’s corporate sponsor and that's when the tradition of gifting Super Bowl MVPs new cars came to an end.
Currently, the NFL offers the Super Bowl MVP the Pete Rozelle Trophy. Alongside, the winner gets bonuses or incentives from their teams. However, there is no fixed cash prize.
After winning over the Seattle Seahawks 28–24 in Super Bowl XLIX, Tom Brady became the last NFL player to receive a car – a Chevrolet Colorado along with his third MVP Award.
Later, Brady gave the car to his ex-Patriots teammate, Malcolm Butler, who nailed New England's win over Seattle with a game-winning interception.
Tom Brady – the man with a heart of gold!