The Moment
Former NFL center Jeff Faine is trading in his glam barn vibes for lake life. According to a January 26, 2026 report from TMZ Sports, the 10-year NFL vet just put his modern farmhouse-style estate in Gotha, Florida, on the market for about $3.995 million.
The place is no basic “former jock” bachelor pad. We’re talking roughly 5,772 square feet of vaulted ceilings, custom wood beams, marble interiors, and that very on-trend modern farmhouse look that screams, “Yes, I do watch home reno shows, why do you ask?”
The home sits about 11 miles west of Orlando and comes with five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and a giant kitchen stocked with a wine cooler and Thermador 30-inch double ovens, per the same report. Toss in a private gym, a game room with a bar, and a massive office holding Faine’s NFL memorabilia, and it feels more like a boutique lodge than a starter home.
Outside, the fenced yard is built for off-season bragging rights: resort-style pool and jacuzzi, a private putting area for golf, and a BBQ setup made for Sunday football marathons.
The twist? TMZ says the Faine family actually loves the house but is moving because their young sons are wake surfers, and they want direct lake access. When your kids’ hobby determines your real estate portfolio, you’re officially living a very specific kind of American dream.
The Take
I have to say: this listing is peak 2026 ex-athlete energy. It’s less “retired bruiser hanging onto the past” and more “country-club-casual dad whose kids shred on the water.”
What I love here is how normal the reason for the move is, if you zoom out. Parents of travel-soccer kids will move school districts; hockey parents will wake up at 4 a.m. for ice time. Jeff Faine? He’s just doing the deluxe version: swapping a nearly $4 million farmhouse for a place where the boys can wake surf right out back.
The house itself is also a fun little snapshot of where taste is right now. Ten years ago, a former NFL player near Orlando might’ve gone full Tuscan palace or Miami glass box. Instead, Faine chose the modern farmhouse lane: wood beams, neutral luxury, and a backyard that looks straight out of a glossy home catalog. It’s like the HGTV aesthetic got drafted in the first round.
And that price tag? For readers in New York, L.A., or even parts of South Florida, $3.995 million for nearly 6,000 square feet plus a resort pool and private putting green probably sounds… almost reasonable. (Emphasis on almost.) This is the Florida effect: a mini-compound 11 miles from Orlando with serious amenities, versus a townhome with street parking somewhere coastal.
There’s also something quietly refreshing about this not being a “fire sale” story. No bankruptcy headlines, no drama. Just a retired pro who had a solid career, built a family-base farmhouse, and is now leveling up to suit the kids’ hobbies. If celebrity real estate news is usually a soap opera, this one’s more of a nicely lit family dramedy.
Think of it as the NFL version of downsizing, except instead of decluttering, you’re just upgrading your backyard to include a lake.
Receipts
Confirmed:
- Jeff Faine has listed his Gotha, Florida home for about $3.995 million, with features including roughly 5,772 square feet, five bedrooms, four and a half baths, a large kitchen with a wine cooler and Thermador double ovens, private gym, game room with bar, office, and a fenced yard with resort-style pool, jacuzzi, putting area, and BBQ setup, according to a January 26, 2026 story from TMZ Sports.
- Faine played 10 seasons in the NFL as a center. He was drafted 21st overall in the 2003 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns and later played for the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Cincinnati Bengals, per public NFL records and his player pages on NFL.com and Pro-Football-Reference.
Ex-NFL Player Jeff Faine Lists Florida Farmhouse For $3.9 Million | Click to read more 👇 https://t.co/mjNr5lmaq7 pic.twitter.com/DbC3f4wGHU
— TMZ Sports (@TMZ_Sports) January 26, 2026
Unverified / Reported, Not Independently Confirmed:
- That the Faine family “loves” the house but is selling primarily because their young sons are wake surfers and they want a home with lake access, as reported by TMZ from unnamed sources.
- Any suggestion that the asking price is a “steal” is clearly opinion and marketing language, not a documented financial fact.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If Jeff Faine isn’t a household name for you, here’s the quick refresher. He’s a former NFL center who came into the league in 2003 as the 21st overall pick, a first-rounder out of Notre Dame. Over roughly a decade, he anchored offensive lines for the Browns, Saints, Buccaneers, and Bengals, according to widely available league records. Centers aren’t usually the stars you see on commercials, but they’re the ones keeping your star quarterback alive. After retiring from football, Faine settled into Florida family life, and this Gotha farmhouse has been part of that chapter.
What’s Next
The listing has just hit the market, so the next moves are pure real estate theater: Will some Orlando-area buyer pounce at full price for the turnkey “NFL farmhouse” package, or will it sit until someone with wake-surfing kids of their own comes along?
For Faine, the story is likely already moving on. If TMZ’s reporting holds, he and his family are hunting for a new place with direct lake access somewhere in Central Florida, trading putting greens for wake-surf wakes. Expect more glossy listing photos in the near future once they land their next spot.
Meanwhile, this sale is another reminder of how many ex-athletes are quietly nesting not in huge coastal party mansions, but in family-friendly, high-end suburbs like the communities around Orlando. The fame is mostly in the past; the square footage, clearly, is not.
So, if you had the budget: would you rather keep this luxe farmhouse with all the resort perks, or sell it too and chase that lakefront life for the kids?
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