The Loop
Tom Brady and Gisele put $39.5-million power-couple pad on market, plunging Boston into panic
The NFL headlines this week have been dominated, for seemingly the millionth eon running, by Tom Brady, who officially signed a two-year contract extension with the New England Patriots on Monday. The contract, which sees Brady's 2019 salary jump from $8 million to $23 million, has widely been reported as a two-year, $70-million extension that will keep Brady a Patriot until 2021. As NFL Network reports, however, that's not exactly the case.
As it turns out, Brady's new contract is actually less of an extension and more of a raise designed to take advantage of a salary cap loophole, with the final two years and $55 million of said extension automatically voiding on the final day of the 2019 league year, helping the Patriots spread out the cap hit of Brady's pay increase over three years while simultaneously allowing Brady to become an unrestricted free agent on March 20, 2019. The contract also forfeits the Patriots' right to franchise or transition tag Brady for the 2020 season. In other words, if Brady is going to be a New England Patriot next season, an entirely new deal will need to be struck.
So if you thought Pats fans were tossing and turning on Monday night, just wait until sundown on Tuesday, a day in which Tom Brady officially listed his Chestnut Hill compound for $39.5 million space-pajama-buying dollars. Do you hear that? That's the sound of every greater Boston Xanax prescription being refilled at once. For the neutrals, however, Casa Brady's Zillow listing provides not only a sliver of hope, but also another healthy dose of aspirational eye candy from the man that has literally everything (signature Aston Martin included.)
Back-yard infinity pool? Check.
Refurbished barn-turned-guest house? Check.
More fireplaces than a Swiss ski lodge owned by the Human Torch? Check, check, check, check.
Does this innocuous shuffle of Brady's real-estate portfolio mark the beginning of the end for the literal, all-time, uncontested GOAT? Who knows, but if we were betting folk (and some of us most definitely are), we'd still wager on Brady outlasting Big Ben, who put his ostentatious abode on the market this week despite also being "under contract" until 2021. Whether it's within the R-dropping, lobster-loving confines of New England, however, is another story altogether.