It’s why Brady’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the Raiders’ website, even though Davis said Brady will have a “huge voice” in “building the infrastructure of the organization.”
And it’s why Brady has been cagey — some may even say dishonest — when asked about his involvement with the Raiders.
“Just more of a long-term, kind of behind-the-scenes type role,” Brady said in February. “I am there to support the team and leadership and the overall vision of success.”
As we saw both Monday and the last several months, Brady’s role with the Raiders is hardly long-term or behind-the-scenes. He’s at the top of their organizational depth chart.
The Raiders hired Brady’s college teammate John Spytek as general manager and his body guru Alex Guerrero as “wellness coordinator.” Brady had a “chance run-in” last offseason in Montana with potential free agent quarterback Matthew Stafford. Brady talks “regularly” to head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, per Carroll.
Then, with a rare opportunity to watch the Raiders in person on Monday night, Brady took in the game from the coaching box while listening in to the coaches’ headsets.
None of this would be a problem if he weren’t also as the lead analyst for Fox Sports. But he is, and his double life presents a major competitive advantage for the Raiders.
The NFL doesn’t allow Brady to visit team facilities, but he can speak to players and coaches virtually in production meetings. He also can speak to his Fox Sports colleagues about what they heard in their meetings, and can chat up players and coaches (or take mental notes) of what he observes while walking the field during warm-ups.
No other team executive has that kind of inside access to the other 31 teams.
Broncos coach Sean Payton said Brady’s arrangement doesn’t concern him because “he covers NFC games. That doesn’t bother me.” In other words, if Brady called more AFC games, it would bother Payton.
The conflict is more than just theoretical the next two weeks. Brady is calling Bears-Cowboys on Sunday for Fox, and the Bears face the Raiders the following week.
“I’m really not worried about it,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said. “Like, there’s not going to be any trade secrets that are going to be exchanged.”
The NFL downplayed the conflict and said, as Johnson did, teams can simply shun Brady.
“As with any production meeting with broadcast teams, it’s up to the club, coach, or players to determine what they say in those sessions,” the statement read.
To think Brady couldn’t glean any inside information from his Fox access is naïve at best. Don’t take it from me — take it from Antonio Pierce, the Raiders’ head coach last year.
“It’s not hard for him to watch a few things on a Friday practice or hear things in a production meeting and be like, ‘Hmm,’ and have tidbits,” Pierce said Thursday on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. “And you’d be foolish enough to think that he’s not going to share that with the Raiders, because we had those conversations about certain things.”
Why does the NFL allow this blatant conflict of interest? It allowed Brady to accept the Fox job in 2022, and the 32 owners approved Brady’s stake in the Raiders in October 2024 knowing full well that he was aligned with Fox.
The NFL surely doesn’t mind having an A-lister calling its top game each Sunday, but it seems it’s doing a favor less for Brady than for Fox, which pays the league $2.25 billion per year for its Sunday NFC package.
Brady’s job with Fox is two-fold — lead NFL analyst, and lead schmoozer at corporate events, rubbing elbows with C-suite types and billionaires. Fox hired Brady, despite having no broadcast experience, because their last No. 1 analyst, Greg Olsen, wasn’t a big enough superstar.
From what I’m told, Brady loves the schmoozing, but never has been that into the analyst job. Spontaneous, unfiltered appearances on live TV have never been Brady’s bag. He generally prefers environments that are carefully curated, like an interview with Jim Gray or a Fanatics event with Michael Rubin.
If Fox told him he no longer has to broadcast, I think Brady would drop it tomorrow, but Fox is paying Brady $375 million over 10 years. That money wants him as the face of the network’s NFL coverage, not just a behind-the-scenes player.
Brady, who has myriad business projects that require capital, isn’t one to turn down $37.5 million per year. So he bites his lip and goes through with the analyst job, while the NFL, Raiders, Fox, and Brady act like everything is on the up-and-up, even though it’s clearly not.
“I think everybody’s going to give you the political answer and say, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal. I’m calling BS on that,’ ” Pierce said. “Now you got a guy who’s a minority owner, a great player, you know he understands the game, you know he sees the game. He has obviously an interest in the Raiders. So I just think it’s unprecedented.”
Owners came up two votes short to ban the Eagles’ short-yardage tush push this offseason, 22-10. It seems a given it will again come up in next offseason’s rules discussions.
The play looks ugly, seems unfair, and might be a health and safety risk — the NFL doesn’t have any data proving that last point — but 10 owners were loath to change the rules just because the Eagles are really good at the play.
Opponents are moving the goal posts. Their issue isn’t the pushing part anymore, but how the Eagles jump offside.
“I love that the problem everyone has with the tush push this week, has absolutely nothing to do with the actual pushing portion,” former Eagles center Jason Kelce wrote on social media.
The best that tush push opponents can hope for is that the NFL officiates the play properly. The league has put the play on high alert. Per the Washington Post, the NFL’s weekly officiating video from Ramon George, NFL VP of officiating, highlights the pushes from last week and stated that the Eagles should have been called for a false start at least once.
George instructed officials to call “these plays tight and make sure that every aspect of the offensive team is legal.”
⋅ Believe it or not, the Patriots are looking for their first two-game win streak in three years. The franchise that owns the NFL record for consecutive wins (21) hasn’t won back-to-back since Weeks 8-11 of 2022 against the Jets, Colts, and Jets.
⋅ Mike Vrabel said, “We’ll have to tackle much better” after his team officially missed five tackles in last Sunday’s win over Miami. Steelers wide receivers average 7.8 yards after the catch this year, best in the NFL, and their running backs have 143 yards after the catch, third-most. The Patriots’ defense has allowed 285 yards after catch, also third-most.
⋅ Aaron Rodgers has 508 regular-season passing touchdowns, tied with his former teammate Brett Favre for fourth in NFL history. Favre compiled his in 298 starts, while Rodgers is only on start 244.
Rodgers also is the most-sacked quarterback, with 578. Brady and Russell Wilson are tied for second (565), followed by Ben Roethlisberger (554), Favre (525), John Elway (516), and Matthew Stafford (506).
⋅ Rodgers is 0-2 at Gillette Stadium, but when asked this week for his top memory of playing there, he referenced a game he was injured for – a 31-27 Patriots win in 2010 against Packers backup Matt Flynn. The game was memorable for a 71-yard kickoff return by Patriots guard Dan Connolly.
“We gave up one of the greatest plays I’ve been a part of in my NFL history,” Rodgers said. “That’s when Dan Connolly had a kickoff return that almost went for a touchdown. Hated that it was against us, but as a lover of the big guys, when they get opportunities to show their athleticism, there may have been a few of us on the sidelines who had a very tiny, quiet, ‘Go!’ on that play.”
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa expressed admiration for Bills counterpart Josh Allen before Thursday’s game.
“I can’t do half of what he does,” Tagovailoa said. “With how he can just chuck a ball down the field with how far and the arm strength that he has, he’s supreme when it comes to that.”
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross probably read those comments and wondered: So why aren’t I paying you half of Allen’s salary?
The Dolphins are 0-3, Tagovailoa has thrown a fourth-quarter interception in consecutive games, and he had barely enough arm strength to complete downfield passes in Thursday’s loss in Buffalo. The Dolphins are paying Tagovailoa $51 million this year and $54 million fully guaranteed next year, meaning they’re pretty much stuck with him until 2027.
Meanwhile, Allen is making $58 million this year and $55 million next year. The reigning MVP is 3-0, the Bills average 34 points and 420 yards per game, and they haven’t turned the ball over yet.
It either makes Tagovailoa the worst value in the NFL or Allen the best — or, perhaps, both.
The Bears hailed new coach Ben Johnson as a savior all offseason, but his start has been less than ideal. The Bears are 0-2 with two division losses, Caleb Williams still looks terrible, and the defense is even worse, allowing the most points (79) through two weeks.
Johnson called his players out during Wednesday’s press conference.
“Our practice habits are yet to reflect a championship-caliber team,” Johnson said. “Simple things of, how do we properly block? How do we catch the ball? How do we block after the catch? Ball security and things like that. It’s the little things that you learn in youth league football that even at this level, they make a huge difference.”
Last year, many Patriots players privately weren’t happy that then-coach Jerod Mayo called them “soft” to the media after a loss. Johnson’s scolding is arguably worse, given that he’s belittling his players with talk of youth football, and not taking any responsibility for how his team is practicing.
That’s a tough way for a first-year coach to earn trust and buy-in from the locker room.
The networks set the first three weeks of broadcaster assignments during the preseason, and a month ago CBS probably felt pretty good about sending its No. 1 team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to the Week 3 Bengals-Vikings game to call Joe Burrow vs. J.J. McCarthy.
Instead, they get Jake Browning vs. Carson Wentz. Burrow is out for most if not all of the season following turf toe surgery, and McCarthy is out two to four weeks with a sprained ankle. It’s worth noting that the Bengals would still likely have Burrow in their lineup if they played on natural grass.
“It’s called ‘turf toe’ for a reason,” former Chargers team doctor David Chao said.
Wentz, Webster’s definition of a journeyman, will become the first player in NFL history to start a game for six different teams in six seasons — Eagles, Colts, Commanders, Rams, Chiefs, and Vikings.
Fanatics, Fox Sports, and Tom Brady promoted a star-studded list of current NFL players who will play in the “groundbreaking global flag football event” next March in Riaydh, Saudia Arabia, including Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Ahmad Gardner, Myles Garrett, Brock Bowers, Maxx Crosby, and Tyreek Hill.
Let’s see how many of them go through with it.
The event is not affiliated with the NFL, and each player’s contract is specific that “without prior written consent of the Club, player will not play football or engage in activities related to football otherwise than for Club or engage in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury.”
In other words, if the players don’t get permission from their teams, suffering an injury in this flag football game could violate their contract and cost them millions. The Saudis might have to pony up a lot of dough to make it worthwhile.
Weird game for the Ravens last week, who scored 41 points in a blowout of the Browns, but were outgained by 80 yards and rushed for just 45. Since the 1970 merger, it was the eighth-fewest rushing yards by a team that scored at least 40 points … Lamar Jackson, who faces the Lions on Monday night, is 7-2 on Monday Night Football with 22 touchdown passes and no interceptions … The Buccaneers are the first team since the merger to score a game-winning touchdown in the final minute of their first two games of the season … Tough week for former Patriots in Washington, as Deatrich Wise (torn quadriceps) and Jonathan Jones (hamstring) hit injured reserve. Jones should be able to return … Bills coach Sean McDermott is 9-0 at home against the Dolphins … Since the NFL expanded the playoff field to 14 in 2020, 5 of 30 teams to start 0-2 have made the playoffs. None of 13 that started 0-3 have … The leaguewide touchback rate is 16.3 percent heading into Sunday, but the 49ers are still kicking off deep, with touchbacks on 50 percent of their kickoffs. The Rams are at 40 percent, and four other teams are above 33 percent. Eight teams, including the Patriots, have yet to kick a touchback … The NFL stadium carousel is spinning furiously. The Commanders are officially returning to the RFK Stadium site in 2031 after the D.C. Council approved a package last week with $1.1 billion in public money. The Browns finally received clearance from the Ohio Department of Transportation to build their stadium near the Cleveland airport for 2029; there was a snag when ODOT determined the project was too tall. These came a week after the Broncos announced a new privately-funded stadium coming in 2031, and the Titans and Bills are set to open new stadiums in the coming seasons.