Tom Brady: Jets rookie was first and last to get autographed interception ball

Tom Brady has started more games at quarterback than any player in NFL history, but in year 22 he says his post game interaction with New York Jets cornerback Brandin Echols was something unique.

Echols, 24, asked Brady to sign a ball he intercepted during the second quarter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 28-24 win against the Jets. Brady didn't look fazed by the request and quickly signed the ball for Echols.

"It's not often I've signed an interception ball, too. I think that's the first time," Brady said with a laugh during an interview with Jim Gray of Sirius XM. "I don't necessarily like signing mistakes, let me just say that. So that's the last time I'm gonna do that. I know it is the season of giving. I don't plan giving any more gifts to people for that, either."

On Monday, Jets coach Robert Saleh was asked how he felt about Echols asking for Brady's autograph after a loss. While he acknowledged that the "optics" aren't great, Saleh said he had no problem with Echols' "ballsy" request.

“I don’t care what anyone says – he picked off Tom. Like that’s a childhood dream," Saleh said. "That’s one of the greatest of all time and for Tom to humor him with the autograph and to do that for him, I think is pretty cool on his part. 

“I have no problem with it, not at all, because I know what those guys go through and trust me, Echols cares that we lost and he cares that Tom had a hell of a game. But to be able to pick off a guy like Tom Brady — how many guys can say that, right?”

Echols was a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and has started 13 games as a rookie.