Tom Brady re-signs damaged American flag at center of lawsuit

Tom Brady has helped to resolve what could have been an ugly lawsuit.

A couple of months ago word surfaced that Daniel Vitale, a long-time Patriots fan, was suing the team's Hall of Fame after he says they damaged an American flag that was signed by the future Hall of Fame quarterback. 

Vitale told TMZ this week, though, that the Patriots helped remedy the situation by working with Brady to re-sign the flag when he returned home from Germany following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game there last week. 

Not only did Brady re-sign it, but Vitale says the new signature is four times the size of the original. He now plans to try and sell the flag and use some of the proceeds to raise awareness for autism. Vitale has a daughter with autism.

The flag flew over old Foxboro Stadium during the 2001 season, which was Brady's first year as the Patriots' starter and also their first Super Bowl-winning season.

Brady signed it several years later. 

Vitale eventually loaned it to the Patriots' team Hall of Fame, which told him it would be "curated to the highest standard."

When it appeared as if Brady was going to retire following the 2021 NFL season, Vitale asked for the flag to be returned so he could sell it. It was then that he found the signature had faded due to what he called improper storage. Because this is thought to be the only American flag signed by Brady, he considered it to have enormous value and was suing the Patriots' Hall of Fame for $1 million, the amount of money he claimed was lost by the damage.