{"id":126172,"date":"2026-02-28T17:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126172\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T17:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T17:39:19","slug":"tom-brady-challenges-pennsylvania-teacher-to-rematch-at-fanatics-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126172\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Brady challenges Pennsylvania teacher to rematch at Fanatics Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Brady challenges Pennsylvania teacher to rematch at Fanatics Games<\/a> originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia<\/a><\/p>\n

Beat Tom Brady!<\/p>\n

That chant recently echoed inside a Pennsylvania gymnasium after the crowd was shown a video message of the legendary quarterback challenging one of the high school\u2019s teachers to a rematch at the upcoming Fanatics Games.<\/p>\n

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Matt Dennish \u2014 a 40-year-old health teacher who finished third in last summer\u2019s multi-sport skills competition that was won by Brady for the $1 million grand prize \u2014 accepted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m up for the challenge,\u201d he told NBC Local. \u201cI\u2019ve been looking at my results and thinking what could I have done differently, and if I had done better could I have beaten him? Mathematically, I think there was a chance. But he does what he does and he took first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rematch will take place in at Fanatics Fest from July 16-19 at the Javits Center in New York City \u2014 with a combination of 50 professional athletes, celebrities and creators and 50 fans competing individually with $2 million in prizes up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Brady issued the challenge to Dennish during an assembly at Red Lion High School in York, Pennsylvania. With the stands filled with students and faculty, the principal invited Dennish onto the court, saying she received a message from Fanatics.<\/p>\n

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A video from Brady then began to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s up Red Lion? I had to send this cause I got a message for one of your teachers, Mr. Dennish,\u201d Brady said. \u201cMatt, remember me? Your Fanatics Games rival, Tom Brady. Yeah. Last year at Fanatics Fest I was very fortunate to beat 100 great athletes and fans to win the inaugural Fanatics Games. But Matt, you were incredible. So, I hear Fanatics Games is back this July in New York City, I\u2019m gonna be there, so I\u2019m calling for a rematch. Winning feels best when you beat the best. So, Matt, I sent you something with Fanatics, if you accept, put it on, and I\u2019ll see you in New York in July. Let the games begin. Let\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennish then opened a box to find a Fanatics Games jersey with his name and the number three on the back, signifying his third-place finish. Dennish put on the jersey and raised his arms as the crowd cheered.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen my principal called me out, I thought they were just going to acknowledge as a school-wide announcement, congratulating me for the games, I didn\u2019t know,\u201d Dennish said. \u201cThen the video popped up on the screen and we\u2019re all standing there watching Tom Brady speak to our school and myself\u2026This whole experience, I just keep telling people, I can\u2019t be surprised with what\u2019s gonna happen next because it\u2019s just been one little surprise after another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennish finished last year\u2019s event as the highest-scoring fan, topping pro athletes like James Harden and Eli Manning.<\/p>\n

Brady, before donating the remainer of his winnings to charity, offered Dennish $250,000 cash on the spot for his third-place prize, a highly-valuable LeBron James rookie card. Dennish accepted. What did he spend the money on?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told not to share because it\u2019s really boring,\u201d he said with a laugh, adding that he made some home improvements and investments.<\/p>\n

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Now he\u2019s aiming for the top prize.<\/p>\n

Dennish was a 6-foot-6 varsity athlete at Red Lion High School, competing 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 17 years ago.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll soon begin training for the eight disciplines in the upcoming Fanatics Games<\/a> \u2014 which includes an NFL clutch kick challenge, NBC game winner challenge, MLB swing-off, NHL shoot & score, FIFA ultimate goal challenge, Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods putting challenge, UFC striking challenge and WWE superstar entrance.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s top-10 finishers are expected to compete once again, including reigning runner-up, UFC fighter Justin Gaethje. Other confirmed participants so far include Harden, Rob Gronkowski, and WWE stars Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Cody Rhodes, and Jey Uso \u2014 all of whom Dennish is pictured with on promotional material for this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

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Fans hoping to enter can compete at in-person qualifiers starting this May in Tennessee, Georgia, Texas and Massachusetts, or submit a video application on the Fanatics website or social media. <\/p>\n

That was how Dennish qualified for last year\u2019s competition, finding out he was selected just weeks before the event after receiving a call directly from Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got five months\u2026definitely have more time to train,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s some kicking events, maybe gotta work on the foot skills. Just be well rounded, and mental focus is going to be crucial, as always.\u201d<\/p>\n

Particularly when being challenged by Brady.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf we\u2019re both near the top and I overcome him,\u201d Dennish said, \u201cI think that would be pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Brady\u2019s video played and Dennish put on his jersey, the school principal had one final message for the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the count of three, I want you all to yell, \u2019Beat Tom Brady!\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe school did a nice job of yelling, \u2018Beat Tom Brady!\u201d Dennish said. \u201cI guess they\u2019re rooting for me. So, we \u2018ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Brady challenges Pennsylvania teacher to rematch at Fanatics Games originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia Beat Tom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6953,58984,50813,22877,18831,58982,28,30,29,58983,5031,2813],"class_list":{"0":"post-126172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-challenge","9":"tag-dennish","10":"tag-fanatics","11":"tag-james-harden","12":"tag-lebron-james","13":"tag-matt-dennish","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","16":"tag-pennsylvania-news","17":"tag-red-lion-high-school","18":"tag-tom-brady","19":"tag-york"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}