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Rare Tom Brady document from 2002 Super Bowl could be sports memorabilia gem
The vast majority of memorabilia from Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl are rare, quite valuable and not easily accessible to the public.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame and the New England Patriots Hall of Fame house the bulk of these great pieces of history that represent one of the all-time greatest players the game has ever seen. The most famous Brady piece is his jersey from that winning performance in Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002.
However, there is an interesting document that isn’t stored in a museum; it’s in the hands of private collector and big Patriots fan, Matt Lavoie. It’s a piece that’s sort of flown under the radar for 23 years. It’s the Patriots’ operational deactivation report from the Super Bowl, listing inactive players and active quarterbacks, signed by the club and submitted to the league 90 minutes prior to kickoff. Brady comes into the mix because the document states he is QB1 for the big game.
“The way that I understand it in all the research is that typically for these reports there would be the Patriots master [sheet] that they made and then at most there would be three copies,” Lavoie said. “There would be a copy that would go to the NFL for the official that they would put in the game log, the GSIS, and then there would be one to the opposing team, which was the Rams. The other copies have never publicly surfaced. If anything, they’re potentially in archives, but most likely destroyed. So, this is in high likelihood the only copy.”
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In the week leading up to Super Bowl XXXVI, Brady was battling an ankle injury and his status as the starter wasn’t solidified. However, this document cemented that Brady was going to start his first of 10 Super Bowl appearances.
“In an era where Brady was still listed as ‘probable,’ Bledsoe was prepping and Belichick’s Wednesday QB1 call wasn’t fully trusted by media or fans—this was the first and only league-submitted confirmation that Brady was starting Super Bowl XXXVI,” Lavoie said. “There was still speculation on Brady's ankle and chatter that Bledsoe might see some time. The official report made Brady QB1.”
Lavoie, 34, has conducted extensive research during the five years he’s owned the document. He’s found out that it’s the only private NFL-used document to confirm Brady’s first Super Bowl start and the only NFL deactivation sheet in private hands from any Super Bowl.
“Only other deactivation sheet that is known to be public in the NFL is Brett Favre’s deactivation sheet for consecutive games streak that is in the Pro Football HOF,” said Lavoie, whose family has had Patriots season tickets for the last 30 years.
“Most Brady memorabilia is a jersey, card or football. This is the first and only in-game document that puts Brady on the field. There is not much, if any, Brady documentation I have seen like this.”
Days after his interview with SCD, Lavoie was notified that his one-of-a-kind Brady document also is headed to Canton.
“To my knowledge, it’s the only surviving team-submitted Super Bowl document from Brady’s career, and now one of only two deactivation sheets the Hall has ever preserved [the other being Brett Favre’s, according to the lead curator,]” Lavoie said. “It was also accepted and offered display for the Patriots Hall of Fame.”
ACQUIRING THE DOCUMENT
The document was sold to a private collector through an auction house in April 2002, two months after the Super Bowl.
“The Rams’ locker room, they’d given away name plates, they’d given away like an extra receiving glove. They had pretty much done a scour of the Rams’ locker room, and this happened to be in there,” Lavoie said.
A receipt from the auction confirms that the entire lot cost just $50.
“It was just kind of a giveaway,” Lavoie said. “‘Hey, this is not worth nothing, it’s pretty worthless.’ Then 23 years later, obviously, history is history.
“No one at this point knew that Tom Brady would become Tom Brady. It could be a document that could be worthless.”
One day while scrolling eBay, Lavoie stumbled upon the Brady document. He was intrigued by the seemingly rare item, so he bought it.
Over the years, Lavoie has put in his due diligence. It’s been his goal to find out as much about the document as possible.
“It’s just a fascinating piece,” Lavoie said. “What’s interesting is just doing more research on it, I think the rarity of it and really just how uncommon things like this come about. With Brady, you see cards and jerseys and footballs and this and that, and this is just something that’s so significant with the Super Bowl he played in but, also, it’s so rare.”
The document is interesting to dissect. The three active quarterbacks for the game are stated as Brady, Bledsoe and Damon Huard, which was actually spelled “Damen.” It also lists the seven inactive players for the Patriots. Lavoie has gathered that a staff member for the Patriots’ football operations, most likely Berj Najarian, filled out the sheet.
One of the scratches for the game was cornerback Leonard Myers.
“The key is that the blue pen edits—team name, date and ‘Leonard Myers’—were made manually on my copy after it was photocopied, and were most likely made manually on the other copies as well,” Lavoie said. “That puts my document on the exact same level of operational finality as the ‘master.’ It’s not just a carbon, it’s the real-time, finalized version that reflects the live change, not a static summary.”
Years after the game, Lavoie found an interview with Myers that stated he was preparing to play in the Super Bowl, but he was a late deactivation because the Patriots needed another offensive lineman. Lavoie isn’t sure which offensive lineman came off the inactive list to be on the roster that day.
Lavoie has been in touch with the Patriots Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and plenty of experts in the field about the provenance of the document. To possibly have a one-of-a-kind item in his possession is mind-blowing.
“It certainly means the world to me,” said Lavoie, who keeps the document in his basement in an acid-free protective sleeve. “There’s an emotional aspect, because I am a Patriots fan. I remember going to games with my dad in the old Foxborough Stadium and the metal stands or whatever those were. Obviously, this week and this game is kind of what changed everything for the Patriots and Boston sports. We hadn’t had a whole ton of winning here, and I think that this just represents what a big change it was and really the decision. I think a lot goes into that decision of Belichick being able to stick with Brady and the legend of Brady becoming what he is today. If they win one Super Bowl or they lose this game, this document is probably worthless. It’s something cool that escaped.”
With the document most likely being a one-of-one, Lavoie isn’t sure how to place a value on it; he’s heard some industry folks say it’s a five-figure item.
“I feel like I kind of have the beachfront property but there’s not the house on it yet,” Lavoie said. “It’s a cool piece of land, but there’s no house—and the house is obviously a Tom Brady signature. If Tom Brady were to write on this, ‘QB1, my 1stSuper Bowl,’ I think it could be worth an extraordinary amount of money.”
