Tom Brady is laying the groundwork for his future in sports.
Not as an active NFL quarterback — but as an investor and owner of a professional pickleball team.
The future Hall of Famer purchased an ownership stake in a Major League Pickleball team, according to Fox News.
League officials announced Brady had made his partial purchase on Wednesday. He’s buying into professional pickleball as a member of an ownership group Knighthead Capital Management, LLC.
Former Grand Slam tennis champion Kim Clijsters, financial advisor Kaitlyn Kerr, investor Callie Simpkins, and Matt Alvarez are joining Brady in the investment.
The sport, which has some similarities to tennis, has achieved viral popularity with American audiences over the past decade, according to CNN.
Players strike a ball in a manner similar to ping-pong in pickleball, all while playing on a compact tennis-style court.
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Steve Kuhn, the founder of Major League Pickleball, is “thrilled” to see Brady and his partners enter his sports league as team owners.
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The investors are “champions in their fields and will now be champions for Major League Pickleball,” Kuhn said, according to CNN.
“We are thrilled to welcome them to our unrivaled roster of strategic partners, who are individually and collectively instrumental in helping us elevate professional pickleball, showcase the joy it brings to millions of people around the globe, and further our ’40 by 30’ campaign — our mission to reach 40 million pickleball players by 2030,” the league founder said of the development.
The pro pickleball league was only founded in 2021, according to ESPN.
Other legendary athletes such as LeBron James have invested in the league, which expanded its plan to create 16 teams.
The pickleball purchase could be the latest sign that Brady intends to hang up his cleats at the end of the 2022 season — concluding a career considered by many to be the greatest in NFL history.
Brady admitted he was “close to the end” of his NFL career in a May interview.
Marital difficulties spurred by Brady’s continuing NFL career have led the superstar to the brink of a divorce, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.
Brady’s wife, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, has an even higher net worth than the NFL player, according to the Post — leading to a potentially messy divorce settlement.
