Tom Brady’s dual role as a FOX NFL color analyst and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders has raised plenty of eyebrows.
After cameras caught him in the Raiders’ coaches’ booth with a headset in the Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, it confirmed what many have long suspected: that Brady has an active hand in running the team.
Brady isn’t just chatting casually with Raiders coaches and players during the week — he’s fully plugged in as he keeps close contact with general manager John Spytek, per The Athletic.
Moreover, his longtime trainer and business partner, Alex Guerrero, oversees the training staff and strength and conditioning as the team’s wellness coordinator. Through this setup, Brady gets direct insight and updates on the roster.
Nonetheless, this setup of having a hands-on role with the Raiders and calling games for FOX isn’t sitting well with sports media personality Skip Bayless. Furthermore, the former FS1 and ESPN pundit is calling out Brady for trying to do both of these roles.
“He’s still flaunting and taunting like he’s the GOAT and he is,” Bayless said on a recent episode of “Skip & The Arena Gridiron.” “You can get away with just about anything if you’re Tom Brady. He’s getting away with a lot right now because what he did Monday night was the biggest FU to the NFL — and especially to Fox — that Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. could spill out there for the world to see. And he knows exactly what he is doing.”
Tom Brady Was Never Going to Be an Absentee Raiders Owner
If Brady decided to get in on a smart investment by being a minority owner of the Raiders but leaving that alone and focusing on being a color analyst for FOX, then this issue would be nonexistent.
Nonetheless, when the former New England Patriots quarterback secured a minority percentage of the Silver and Black, Bayless was never buying that Brady wouldn’t get involved.
“I told you from the start he had made it clear this is just an investment,” Bayless added. “I’m going to stay out of the way. I’m an absentee owner. I never go there. I don’t talk to anybody. I’m a silent partner. Cool. You know, you can sort of live with that… But they kept saying he’s such a valuable—he’s a tremendous asset to the franchise.
“Then Pete Carroll got asked the question afterward and he said no, that’s not accurate, but we do talk regularly. You talk—it is accurate. So you do talk to him, and he talks to Chip Kelly regularly. Two or three times a week he is participating as an advisor, a sort of unofficial coach or coordinator to the outcome of football games. So we saw this. So here’s the problem.”
Former Raiders Coach Speaks Out on Tom Brady
Former Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce recently stated that NFL teams should be concerned about this dual role that Brady has.
“This is unprecedented, what we’re seeing,” Pierce told Adam Schein of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio (h/t Pro Football Talk). “I think I would be uncomfortable if it was the other way around, to be honest with you. Because you’re not dealing with just a normal person. Tom Brady is the elite of the elite, one of the greatest quarterbacks, one of the greatest players in the game, played against him obviously, student of the game.
“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. And you’d be foolish enough to think that he’s not gonna share that with the Raiders because we had those conversations about certain things.”