LAS VEGAS — I visited the Hall of Excellence, the museum started by Tom Brady and reporter Jim Gray inside the Fontainebleau Hotel, last week.
I really can't stop thinking about the experience.
We spoke to @GregBishopSI, the storyteller of the Hall of Excellence at the @fblasvegas.
— cllct (@cllctMedia) July 28, 2025
And cllct's @darrenrovell toured the illustrious museum.
Read his experience walking through greatness here: https://t.co/DzYWbxef72 pic.twitter.com/Rw567SitA5
To say I was shocked by the quality of the items and their compelling presentation is an understatement. And the little touches show the curation was done by someone who cared.
Upon entering, you get a headset so that each exhibit gets context, thanks to storytelling from Sports Illustrated writer Greg Bishop and voiceovers from celebrities such as Morgan Freeman and Oprah Winfrey.
The space is jam-packed with items. And it's the perfect size. You can rumble through there during your visit to Las Vegas in less than an hour.
The Hall offers everything you would expect in a great sports museum. Game-used jerseys and equipment from the biggest stars — obviously Brady, but also Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and more.
But what stood out for me were the small touches.
Take the Jordan display, for example: Signed game-used Air Jordans from MJ's rookie season are accompanied by a worn three-peat hat and unused Jordan victory cigars.
Walter Payton's helmet is displayed with a used Roos headband.
The museum not only features a program from Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, it also has the official scorecard signed by Wilt, a piece that sold for $122,400 in 2022 at Goldin Auctions.
The Olympic Collection has Carl Lewis' 1984 Team USA Levi's jacket and Michael Johnson's gold shoe.
All of Brady's Super Bowl rings are there, and so are the tickets to his seven wins, which you rarely see. Many items are from Gray's collection, but the top ticket is the pass for Jackie Robinson debut, which sold for $480,000 and was bought by Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio.
The small things are what visitors will walk away talking about, including Mike Krzyzewski's "Dream Team" whistle and the ticket to the last plane flight John Madden ever took.
And with all that being said, if things don't change, this museum won't be open for long.
Why?
Because no one really knows it's there.
On the 30-second pre-roll video on the hotel's website, there's not a single flash of the museum. If you aren't looking for it, you could easily walk by the Hall of Excellence on your way to grab food.
The ticket price, on the surface, seems high, with a $35 admission fee. You can see the hesitancy. Because they only let in 15 people every 15 minutes, you can see how many tickets are left in each time slot. Glancing at the schedule for the day, there were no shortage of spots.
Part of that is probably the $35 price. For what the Hall offers, however, it's actually a fair price.
There just aren't enough people screaming from the rooftops how cool this space is. And Fontainebleau, which is already struggling with gaming revenue, isn't necessarily motivated to keep people in a museum for an hour.
The items in the space are extremely impressive, but they don't market themselves. They need a budget and a star (Brady himself) for this museum to have a shot at serious longevity.
Short of that, it's destined to be another jewelry store by next summer.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.