You can now own a piece of infamous NFL history.
A New England Patriots-used Deflategate football is hitting the auction block Thursday on Lelands.com for a summer auction that will close July 17, according to ESPN.
Patriots wide receiver handed the football to Laura Nichols and her husband Matt, who were sitting in the front row of the end zone at Gillette Stadium, for the AFC title game between the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts back in January.
"LaFell picked up the ball, I pointed at him, he pointed at me and he handed me the ball," Nichols told ESPN. "It was all so surreal."
What's more surreal was the scandal that came after it, resulting in Patriots' star quarterback Tom Brady being suspended for four games of the 2015 season, the NFL fining the organization $1 million and making them forfeit their first-round 2016 draft pick and fourth-round 2017 selection.
Nichols' football was confirmed to have been one of the 12 deflated footballs used in the first half of the AFC title game by the NFL-commissioned Ted Wells' report. Now, the question is how much will it fetch at the auction. Already, the lowest bid allowed for the football is $25,000.
"This is a 'wow' type of collectible," Joshua Evans, founder and chairman of Lelands.com, told ESPN. "This is one of the best conversation pieces that has ever been sold."
Evans added: "I could see this ball getting six figures."
Cha-ching!
It better go ahead and get sold, as Brady is scheduled to appeal his suspension before league commissioner Roger Goodell next week. Wonder if a reduction in his suspension would decrease the value of the football at all?
Probably not. Like it or not, it's a valuable piece of notorious football history.
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