Antonio Brown video clip NFT brings $20K in auction

Las Vegas Review-Journal

3 years ago

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown (81) gestures to the crowd as he leaves the fi ... — Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown (81) gestures to the crowd as he leaves the field while his team’s offense is on the field against the New York Jets during the third quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, in East Rutherford, N.J. Brown left the game and did not return. (Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown wipes his face as he leaves the field after throwing his equipment into the stands while his team is on offense during the third quarter of an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, in East Rutherford, N.J. (Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP)

The Las Vegas entrepreneur who acquired the exclusive rights to the non-fungible token of video footage of former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown’s departure from his football team sold it at auction as sports memorabilia for around $20,000.

Evan Savar acquired the rights to NFT the video footage, originally captured from a fan’s camera phone, and auctioned it on ViralHeir.com, at a price of 6 etherium, which at the time of sale was valued at about $20,000.

Non-fungible tokens are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other.

The video clip captured by the fan shows Brown storming off the field as he ended his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their Jan. 2 game against the New York Jets.

Etherium, a form of cryptocurrency, has fluctuating value. Savar paid 1 unit of ethereum for the NFT video clip. Savar had hoped to make $1.5 million in the transaction, based on the previous sale of similar assets.

Despite the NFT going for far less than expected, a spokeswoman for Savar said he was happy with the sale because he made contact with a number of other ethereum traders during the 78-hour auction that ended Sunday evening.

The video clip shows Brown throwing his uniform into the crowd and was seen by an estimated 11.6 million people on Twitter. The footage was licensed and played across the internet and top news networks with more than 50 million people seeing it across all mediums. TV broadcast cameras didn’t pick up on the incident right away because it happened during the game.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.