Tom Brady torches Dave Portnoy over $75,000,000 payday claim for Saudi Arabia Flag Football event

NFL icon Tom Brady announced he was coming out of retirement to play in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in Saudi Arabia in March 2026. Barstool founder Dave Portnoy isn't a fan of Brady returning for the tournament.

Brady, regarded as one of the greatest players in NFL history, will be the biggest attraction at the tournament, elevating flag football's global appeal. However, Portnoy alleged that the former quarterback was being paid $75,000,000 for participating in the tournament.

On Monday's episode of FS1's "Wake Up Barstool," Portnoy took a shot at Brady's involvement in the tournament, alleging he was getting a huge payday for it.

"$75 million he got paid to do this,” Portnoy said. “The fastest growing game in the world, flag football. Question obviously is, how much for each of you?”

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Brady fired back at the Barstool owner, saying Portnoy was picking numbers out of a hat and doesn't care about facts. He wrote on X:

"Are we just picking numbers out of a hat and reporting them? While we’re breaking news... Elvis is doing the halftime show, and Babe Ruth is gonna sign some autographs for fans. Also, I heard Dave prefers floppy pizza. Who cares about facts right? 😂"

Tom Brady's flag football tournament hosted in Saudi Arabia hit by NFL restrictions

While Tom Brady is the biggest name from the NFL participating in the tournament in March, he will be joined by several high-profile names like Rob Gronkowski, Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett and Sauce Gardner.

The tournament also promised NFL-like insurance protections. However, the NFL issued a memo to the 32 franchises reminding them that it won't provide protections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

"This Event is not an NFL-sanctioned event, and the league has no role in the organization or production of the game," the memo read. "Any injury sustained while participating in the Event will be considered a Non-Football Injury."

The memo has put a dark cloud over the participation of current NFL stars in the tournament as the players won't have any protection from the league if they get injured during the tournament.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash