When Phil Mickelson shed light on his conversation with American billionaire Alex Spanos about buying an NFL team

Phil Mickelson is one of the best golfers of all time, but interestingly, he also has a soft spot for football in his heart. Mickelson has always been a fan of the NFL, particularly the San Diego Chargers (now the Los Angeles Chargers). Surprisingly, at one point, he was interested in purchasing the franchise from American billionaire Alex Spanos.

Phil Mickelson revealed all of this in a 2009 interview with Golf Digest. There, he remarked that he had a young child within himself who had always wanted to root for the Chargers. Not only that, but the golfer stated that he hoped to get involved in professional football in some way. He even stated that his long-term ambition is to own a minority portion of the Chargers.

Mickelson explained:

"Well, first of all, I do love the Chargers. I've rooted for them since I was a kid and go to as many games as I can. At their playoff game against Indianapolis in January, I lost my voice cheering for them. I would love to be involved in pro football somehow. It's a great sport to get involved in, but I've never had the opportunity. As a long-term goal, yeah, that would be one of them, to have some sort of ownership interest in the Chargers."

Alex Spanos first purchased 60% of the Chargers in 1984, but later purchased the entire minority stake and owned 97% of the franchise. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2018, and his portion was divided equally among his four children, Dean, Dea, Michael, and Alexis.

---

When Phil Mickelson shared his golfing experience with Tom Brady

LIV Golf-Robert Trent Jones Golf Club - Source: Getty

Phil Mickelson collaborated with NFL star Tom Brady for the Champions of the Charity Match in 2020. It was a COVID-19 charity event in which Tiger Woods and Payton Manning faced off against Mickelson and Brady. In the end, Woods and Manning stood tall after defeating their opponent by one shot.

Interestingly, Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady did make a comeback, but it came too late. While discussing it on the Dan Patrick Show, Mickelson acknowledged how poorly their pair performed. He stated:

"Tom is one of those guys that he kind of just finds a way. And if you get in his way and you give him too much thought, it will it will inhibit him from figuring it out. Obviously, we played awful the first six holes, both of us. But after that, we played really really well. But we played four-under-par the last 12 holes. He really stepped it up on the on the back-nine."

From this charity event, all four celebrities were able to generate a total of $20 million.