Dan Roberts, Decrypt Editor-in-Chief, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the collision of sports and crypto as Tom Brady announces his retirement from the NFL.

Video Transcript

- We're sticking with this topic with our next guest and friend of the program. Dan Roberts is editor in chief at Decrypt. And Dan, I feel like this is the perfect topic for you since you've been covering both sports business, of course, and crypto for quite some time now. And Tom Brady does have a stake in the crypto exchange platform FTX. He also, as-- as Josh was mentioning, has the NFT platform with Autograph. How do you see these crypto-related ventures being impacted by his retirement from the NFL?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, first of all, Emily, you're right that sports and crypto have converged like never before, during the pandemic. So there was a time when I was covering sports business more heavily but also crypto. Now I'm heavier on crypto.

They are really colliding. That Venn diagram has huge overlap. And Brady is a terrific example, although there is now a story just out today about Drew Brees doing something similar. A lot of these current and former NFL players have really flocked to crypto.

It's funny. We did a story at Decrypt today about this. Our newest staff reporter, Kate Irwin, wrote it. And a friend texted me and said, stop trying to make the Brady thing a crypto story, but it really is. He invested in, along with his wife, Gisele, FTX, as you mentioned, which has quickly become one of the biggest exchanges and has obviously spent a lot of money on sports marketing.

So he is an investor in that, and he's an ambassador. They've been running ads with him all over the airwaves for weeks. And I wouldn't be surprised if you even see him appear in the FTX Super Bowl ad. FTX bought a Super Bowl ad.

So that's FTX, a major exchange. Then there's Autograph, which you mentioned. He cofounded that platform. It is an NFT platform. And there are a lot of videos of Brady and the other top athletes that have done NFTs with Autograph quite literally physically autographing tablets so that the autograph is, you know, digital. But it's true to their real signature.

And they've added a ton of big names. And they also have people on the Autograph board from Apple, Spotify, and DraftKings so a lot of heavy hitters there. And in his retirement post, he mentions that he wants to focus on his businesses like Autograph, the Brady apparel brand, and TB12. So he really is going full crypto. I think you'll see more, not less from him in the next few years.

- You think about high-profile figures, whether they be celebrities or athletes historically, and whether they achieve the same type of Oprah effect. Does Tom Brady, is he set or positioned to-- for his Brady Bunch of businesses, if you will, that he's invested in set to hit some of those markers that we've seen some of the businesses that historically Oprah has invested in? They tend to skyrocket thereafter. How can Brady kind of amass that same type of business success?

DAN ROBERTS: Yeah, Brad, I think he will be at that level. Now, of course, you know, I'm from Boston, so I'm a little biased. I love the guy. My friends who are from New York and are Giants fans hate him. And they would disagree.

But I think as the years go on, it becomes harder and harder to dislike him. I think he's one of those people whose brand seems to be, even though it is extremely kind of buttoned up, and he's very PRed, I think that the general consensus is he seems to be genuine. And he seems to be a good guy, a nice guy. I think that he has built a very careful, strong brand.

And you know, you mentioned the apparel brand Brady, or Josh Schafer did. You know, that has the potential to be like a Jordan brand. Probably never that big. But if it's taken seriously and if it catches on, I think you could see him do anything. He might end up on TV as an occasional commentator. But I think he wants to do more than that.

He certainly is going to be a sort of symbol of healthy living. He's got his nutrition line and all those products. There was a time where people would make fun of the TB12 method. But what I always said to that was, well, it can't be completely crazy because it works for him, right? So I think you'll continue to see him run the gamut in business from cookbooks to apparel to workout products to equipment to, of course, the NFTs and the crypto play.

- All right, we'll leave it there for now. Dan Roberts, Decrypt editor in chief, thank you, as always, for your time and joining us this afternoon.