Matt Dennish is heading home with bragging rights over professional athletes, a great story to tell his students, and a bag filled with $250,000 in cash.
The 39-year-old high school health teacher from Pennsylvania won a highly-valuable LeBron James rookie card on Sunday for finishing third in Fanatics Games — a high-stakes sports-skills competition in New York City.
But the legendary former athlete who won the three-day event, and the $1 million prize that came with it, wanted the card.
So, Tom Brady traded for it.
“I’d like to offer Matt $250,000 for that card…in cash right now,” Brady told Dennish while the two were on stage at the closing ceremony of the three-day event.
Dennish accepted — and was given the cash from Brady’s winnings while on stage.
“I didn’t know exactly what to do with a card of that value, so he made my job a little bit easier just talking it off my hands,” Dennish told NBC Local after the ceremony. “So, I appreciate that.”
By day, he teaches. By weekend, he competed with the best.
Matt Dennish repped the fans, and the faculty, with a 3rd place finish at the Fanatics Games. First in the hearts of every fan in homeroom. pic.twitter.com/Y6bMjMTMhs
— Fanatics Fest (@FanaticsFest) June 22, 2025
The competition included 50 pro athletes and celebrity contestants and 50 fans who auditioned to earn their spot. It featured eight events: MLB pitching accuracy, NHL slapshot accuracy, NFL passing skills, an NBA shooting competition, a FIFA goal-scoring shootout, a UFC striking challenge, golf accuracy and a WWE entrance contest.
Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl winner, won with a final score of 399.1 points. UFC star Justin Gaethje took second with 345.4 — earning a Ferrari 296 GT valued at $500,000. Dennish came in third with 326 points, beating out Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden, who took fourth with 323.9 points, and former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who was fifth with 314.5 points.
“Beating a few of those professional athletes, I hope they were trying their hardest, it makes me feel good that I actually came out on top,” Dennish said. “It just shows that I do have a little skill still in me at 39 years old.”
The 6-foot-6 Dennish was a three-sport varsity athlete at Red Line High School in York, Pennsylvania — where he competed in basketball, track and cross country. He went on to run track at the Division I level at East Carolina University in North Carolina before returning home to become a teacher at his alma mater 16 years ago.
He had the high score in the MLB pitching accuracy event, which awarded points for hitting targets in the strike zone while pitching from a mound, and his overall score was 15.6 points ahead of the second-highest scoring fan.
“Give it up to Matt,” Brady said on stage. “To come in third place with so many incredible athletes, I was absolutely blown away. There’s no way that I thought that a fan could compete with guys who train their entire life in these disciplines.”
Brady, an avid trading card collector who owns his own hobby stores, offered market value for the card — a 2003-04 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor. The two were joined on stage by comedian Kevin Hart, who helped broker the deal for Dennish, getting Brady to throw in his own signed trading card and jersey to go along with the bag of cash.
“We’ll save a little bit of that and then we’ll see how we’re gonna spend it,” Dennish said.
Was he provided security to leave the building with his winnings?
“Yes,” he said, “I’m taken care of.”
He leaves, not only with Brady’s cash, but his respect.
“I learned a little bit about him,” Brady said. “A teacher, he’s a Philly fan obviously, which is still somewhat hurtful to see, but congratulations on a great year again and congratulations on this.”
Dennish was scrolling social media last week when he saw a post for the inaugural Fanatics Games.
“I’ve always been told I can do all kind of random athletic feats,” he said. “I was like, ‘Why don’t I just try putting in for this?’”
He applied, submitting an audition video. He included a clip from last year when he hit a halfcourt shot at a Philadelphia 76ers game to win $10,000 towards his existing season-ticket package. He also included video from his school’s faculty-versus-student basketball game when he dunked over a student who regrettably attempted to take a charge and instead became…well, a highlight submitted to Fanatics.
Dennish was having dinner with his family on Sunday for Father’s Day when he received a call from an unknown number.
“It was Michael Rubin on Facetime,” he said of the Fanatics CEO. “I was a little taken back. I was like, ‘Uh oh, I think this might be the invite.’ He was really positive, energetic, saying, ‘Hey, I want to bring you up here’ and that whole thing.”
Fanatics
Fanatics Matt Dennish, a teacher from Pennsylvania, competes in Fanatics Games at Fanatics Fest in New York City.
Dennish spent the next few days preparing for the competition, practicing each sport with his brother in the gym at the local elementary school.
“I was trying to do the sports that were gonna be included, not knowing all the details, but just practicing,” he said. “But also not trying to overdo it cause, being 39, the body doesn’t respond like it used to.”
The stage of the competition he was most concerned with? His WWE-style walkout down an entrance ramp, complete with music, jumbotron and fans — that would be scored by three judges.
“It was stressing me out all week,” he said. “I’m not a wrestling guy.”
He ended up scoring higher in that event than former New England Patriots tight end, and wrestling enthusiast, Rob Gronkowski.
Dennish replicated the entrance of wrestling star Joe Hendry — borrowing a championship belt he borrowed from the girl’s wrestling team at his school.
“I took off my shirt,” he said with a laugh. “I’m getting some comments on that one.”
He said he left some points on the board because of a dissapointing football performance, saying his accuracy and distance while throwing to targets were not up to his standards, and his struggles in the hockey shootout, where he was unable to lift the puck while firing shots into a stackable washer and dryer.
“Could I have beaten Brady? How much higher could I have been?” he said after he competed on Friday, when h closed the day sitting in second place behind Brady. “But it’s kind of cool just seeing the other names there.”
He monitored the leaderboard from home on Saturday as other contestants got their opportunity. When he sat in third after the second round on Saturday, he decided to return to New York with his family to watch the final round in person.
“The reason I wanted to do this is just to test my skills,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to put them to the test. I just enjoy playing sports and it’s awesome to see what comes out of it. Never thought this would happen, but it did.”
He can now return home — with his bragging rights and winnings — to tell his students about how their teacher defeated professional athletes in a multi-sport competition.
“It’s gonna be question after question,” he said. “I’m gonna have to explain myself an awful lot. But I’ll have fun with it.”
