Tom Brady has honored the memory of his longtime personal coach with a donation to a Canton-based nonprofit that helps people in need of organ transplants.
After a pair of his cleats fetched $30,000 in an NFL auction, the Patriots quarterback donated a portion of the money to the “Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund,” according to a press release from matchingdonors.com.
“He gave us a lot of money,” Paul Dooley, co-founder of MatchingDonors.com said in a phone interview.
Dooley declined to say how much Brady donated, but said it was “ . . . a substantial amount of money.”
Attempts to reach Brady through Jonesworks, a New York-based public relations firm that represents him, were unsuccessful.
Martinez joined matching donors in 2009 when he was in need of a kidney transplant. Brady, who had worked with Martinez since he was a young boy in California, helped publicize the effort in 2011.
Unfortunately, Martinez died a few months later, on his 67th birthday, before he could have a transplant. But before he died, Martinez set up his Goal Line Fund, which is run by MatchingDonors.com.
The organization announced Brady’s donation in April as part of National Donate Life Month.
A daughter of Tom Martinez said her family is grateful for the six-time Super Bowl champ’s continued support.
“We’re really happy, and so grateful, that Tom Brady continues to honor his relationship with my father in this way,” Linda Martinez Haley said by telephone from her home in California.
Tom Martinez set up the fund to people in need of organ transplants that don’t have access to resources.
“We want everyone to have access to this opportunity,” Haley said.
Adam Sennott can be reached at adam.sennott@globe.com
