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Permalink Reply by Nick on February 1, 2015 at 11:26pm

It's impossible to tell. Ive been to Pats training camp many times, and although I have never been able to get Brady, I've seen people get him before and you get an illegible squiggle. Obviously it's not his traditional show/relaxed setting autograph, but it would be impossible to authenticate this knowing his IP(specifically training camp) habits of giving a quick flick of the pen and nothing more.

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Permalink Reply by James on February 2, 2015 at 12:02am

I suppose that's true, Nick. I really don't know much about his autograph, even though he is actually my favorite QB. But I'm sure it's entirely possible that a person could get an IP auto where you really just get a scribble. Then when you tell people, "Hey I got Brady's autograph!" They're like, "Sure, dude, whatever."

And like you said, there's really no way to authenticate it, even though, in that case, it is authentic. The problem is that when famous people just give a scribble...well that is really all you got...a scribble, not an autograph. Because when there's no way at all to verify it, you really got nothing at all. You'd almost like to say, "Okay, that's nice, but now could I get your AUTOGRAPH, please, because what you gave me is something else."

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on February 2, 2015 at 7:25am

there is no way to authenticate this junk. it could be his scribble, but then again, it would be fairly easy for a low life forger to duplicate. this signature is not marketable and if he signed my football this way, I would have told him to keep it.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on February 2, 2015 at 8:05am

It's really sad if in fact this is a real autograph of Brady that today's sports and entertainment stars don't take their celebrity status seriously.

Can you imagine Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Joe Dimaggio, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Jim Thorpe, etc. etc. signing their name like this?

I know the case can be made that in the era these players were signing the collectors were actually keeping the autographs and today's stars know for the most part the autographs are being sold but they might as well refuse to sign if this is what you get from them.

It is a shame in my opinion. I have to give credit to stars like Jeter and Riviera for always signing legible autographs even though I realize they might not have been that easy to get at the ball games. If they chose to sign, they did it where you could actually read it.

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Permalink Reply by Null on February 2, 2015 at 8:11am

Yup. Quite pathetic. It probably is authentic, as I couldn't imagine a forger wasting a ball on that. But obviously no way this could ever be authenticated. It is a shame how some stars have resorted to squiggles or initials. They need a good lesson from Arnold Palmer or the late Harmon Killebrew!

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on February 2, 2015 at 9:01am

It's not just the stars. If you look at team balls even from the 80s you can read most of the signatures. Look at a team ball today. You are lucky to be able to read 5 percent of the autos.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on February 2, 2015 at 9:30am

True. It's almost anybody who is asked to sign their autograph on a frequent basis.

Chipper Jones was another one from the Jeter/Rivera era that always signed legibly.

Maybe today's players figure if they just scribble, the autograph can't be easily sold or maybe if it is bad enough the fans will stop asking them to sign at all.

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Permalink Reply by Null on February 2, 2015 at 9:33am

Yup. I love the story Torii Hunter tells about how he used to sign horribly and Harmon Killebrew told the whole team they need to sign nice and neat so that in 75 years when someone finds that ball they know who signed it and are intrigued. Torii has signed beautifully ever since. 

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on February 2, 2015 at 9:38am

great story.  Killebrew was a great guy. I met him once in Arizona.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on February 2, 2015 at 8:18am

Okay, I don't usually resort to jerkish comments like this, but anyone who buys that is an absolute empty-headed moron.  The seller should be embarrassed he's even trying to sell that crap with zero provenance.  Like everyone else has said, there's no way to authenticate it.  Even if you did have some photo to video proof, why would you want that?  I would be humiliated to display something like that.

Even Brady's "paid for" signature is crap.  This is the reason I generally don't bother with sports autographs anymore.  Even when the athlete gets paid (a lot), they put zero effort into it.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Baldock on February 2, 2015 at 10:16am

Unfortunately modern signatures are going this way to mostly junk. Even at sit down sessions many celebrities give scribble. Norman Reedus one example for about 40 bucks! With all the electronics true handwriting is going by the wayside. I doubt if many of us actually sit down and write letters. Good luck to that greedy idiot thinking hes gonna get 299 bucks for that trash.

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Permalink Reply by James on February 2, 2015 at 2:03pm

That's for sure. I mean even if it's an authentic Brady scribble, since it's essentially unidentifiable, it's pretty much worthless. That's a situation where you would say, "I know it's real. And since no one else is believing it, I will just keep it for myself, knowing that I have an authentic scribble from one of the three winningest SB QBs of all-time."

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