2019 Absolute Kaboom! Gold Tom Brady 10/10 #K-TB BGS 9.5 GEM MINT

Even after 22 years, there is one slight Tom Brady refuses to get over. Sure, the sting of being passed up 198 times—including six times by the New England Patriots alone—in the 2000 NFL Draft definitely still lingers, but Brady’s beef is not with his former team—it is with Madden (the video game, not the man). Brady’s rookie year happened to coincide with the release of Madden ‘01, and to say the game developers disrespected the Michigan product would be the understatement of the century. Not only did the Madden team think so little of 57-overall Brady that they failed to even name him—he was simply known as “QB 12”—but perhaps their biggest offense was the grade they gave his Awareness attribute: a pathetic 41 overall. In the context of Madden, Awareness influences how a player will react to his surroundings; for quarterbacks, it essentially determines how they see the field and execute once the ball is snapped. So, according to the developers, if Brady had seen a receiver streaking downfield in blown coverage, he would have been more inclined to run the ball backwards into his own endzone than heave it his teammate’s way. Naturally, Brady has continued to joke about his abysmal ratings with each Madden release, but knowing him, he has undoubtedly used this early disrespect to fuel his two-plus decades of greatness. After all, could a guy with only 41 awareness throw over 600 career touchdowns and win seven Super Bowls? The same year Brady won the sixth of those seven championships, Panini’s 2019 Absolute Football hit shelves with a new addition to its checklist: the highly coveted Kaboom SSP. Falling at an average of one per hobby case, Kabooms were available in base, Gold /10, and Green 1/1 parallels, though most agree that the Golds are far and away the most aesthetically pleasing. This bookend 10/10 BGS 9.5 example has a chance to put up video game-like numbers as the popularity of Kaboom inserts only continues to skyrocket. The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 06/09/25.