Tom Brady was in the Raiders’ coach’s booth on Monday night. Headset on, sitting alongside the team coaches, Brady was in a position to give real-time input on the game as it was happening.
That’s well within his rights as an owner, but this entire situation of Brady being able to hold a job as an analyst for FOX Sports, be part-owner of an NFL team, and serve in a defacto coaching role is absolutely ludicrous. It’s stunning that the league continues to allow it to happen, and it’s only going to get worse from here.
The moment Brady became a minority owner of the Raiders it was rightfully met with concerns over conflict of interest. He is the only man in media who covers the league he has a team in, which is problematic enough on its own — but considerably worse when you realize that Brady’s media gig with FOX is giving him direct access to information other teams don’t have on their upcoming opponents.
There’s a hierarchy of information that members of the media gets when it comes to the NFL. Writers and independent content creators get very little. Sure, they might attend practices or get some media time with players, but that’s about it. The NFL is naturally obsessed with TV, and those people get almost unfettered access to the locker room, players, coaches, and schematic information if they’re an on-air talent calling the game. That’s normal, because to do your job properly as an analyst it requires spending time with the coaching staff and observing things closely to understand personnel groupings, play patterns, and even specific plays a team might draw up.
Tom Brady has all this information as part of his job. What’s unclear is whether or not he would use it in his role as an owner. What we do know, however, is that Brady has the means, access, and the opportunity to make use of this information in a way no other team can. If we look at Brady’s broadcasting schedule for this season it’s littered with occasions where he’s on the call of one team, and his Raiders will see them at some time in 2025.
This is all dependent on whether or no FOX moves around America’s Game of the Week — but as it stands Brady is set to be directly involved in the broadcasting of six Raiders games in 2025. This would be suspect enough if he was just an owner, but the whole thing starts to smell bad when he’s in the coaching booth and spending ample time with offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. It’s impossible to trust that Brady isn’t gaining behind-the-scenes information about the Raiders future opponents, and funneling that to the people inside the organization. The temptation alone is human nature.
The NFL’s response is to outline how special rules are being made for Brady and point out that it’s up to teams to determine what they do and don’t share with him.
No other professional sports league would tolerate this level of conflicted interest. A sensible league would make Brady choose between being an owner or being a broadcaster. The NFL is not a sensible league, especially when it comes to Tom Brady. The crown prince of football is the only man who could ever do this, because the NFL would rather break the competitive balance of its game than ostracize the greatest quarterback of all time from being available 24/7 as an ambassador of the league.
No other sports broadcaster would tolerate this level of conflicted interest. A sensible broadcaster would make Brady choose between being an analyst and being an owner. FOX Sports is not a sensible broadcaster, especially when it comes to Tom Brady. The crown prince of football is the only man who could ever do this, because FOX Sports would rather influence the competitive balance of the game than lose out on having the greatest quarterback of all time on the air for them.
Everyone else is just caught in the middle of this mess.
