Would Tom Brady and the Buccaneers Really Have Just Left the Lombardi Trophy in the River?

Tom Brady appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden to talk about his latest Super Bowl victory. Eventually, Corden asked about the boat-to-boat Lombardi Trophy toss that Brady completed to Cameron Brate. Brady said he doesn't remember the celebration quite as well as the game and was not thinking when he threw the trophy.

""I found out later, had that been an incomplete pass, that would have went down like 80 feet.""

This seems to be wildly inaccurate as Tampa has very shallow waterways, but if someone has information about a trench in the area, let us know. It could just be something that someone told Brady that day when he was (respectfully) hammered.

No matter how deep the Hillsborough River is at this time of year, the team claims that they would have let Neptune keep the trophy.

"Team sources told ESPN that, had the stunt gone awry, the Bucs would have ordered a replacement."

This is a very curious statement since it wouldn't have taken James Cameron to find this thing.

It really makes you wonder what would have happened if the trophy had fallen into the water because there is no way the Bucs just leave the actual trophy there. A police marine unit would have had to go get that thing immediately. Can you imagine the chaos otherwise as that boating community converged on that spot for the ultimate, uh, trophy?

The Lombardi trophy costs $50,000 just to make and I can't imagine one has ever hit the open market. The value of this extremely limited-run item that was thrown away, on video during the celebration, by probably the greatest player of all-time, would have to be incalculable. This would become the NFL's actual Hope Diamond and the team seriously told ESPN that they would just get another one? I can't imagine the daughter of the original trophy silversmith will appreciate this statement.

The real question is, how many players or personnel would have actually jumped in to try and retrieve it? Considering the value of the object and the number of people who had been drinking, I think we would have seen at least a half-dozen people go in. Somebody might have even been able to get to it. That would have been deserving of a whole other parade.