The question of whether Tom Brady should be permitted to serve as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and as Fox’s lead in-game analyst arose once again after he wasspotted wearing a headset in Las Vegas’ coaching booth on Monday night.
Former NFL executive and current analyst Andrew Brandt has expressed his thoughts on the potential Brady-related controversy, now that the seven-time Super Bowl champion can participate in production meetings with players and coaches, and also speak with them on the field ahead of games this season.
Former NFL executive reveals “issue” regarding Tom Brady conflict of interest storyline
“Do we really think that Brady’s broadcast colleagues — fellow announcers and producers — are not going to share with him everything they learned? Please,” Brandt wrote Thursday, via Sports Illustrated. “The issue is not so much that Brady will find out plays that teams run and tell his Raiders coaches, although he certainly can. Or that he hears some scoop about a team that could help the Raiders down the road. The issue is more the appearance in a league that cares deeply about appearance. Can we imagine (Dallas Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones or (New England Patriots owner) Robert Kraft sitting in broadcast meetings about an Eagles-Giants game?”
Head coaches Brian Schottenheimer (Cowboys), Ben Johnson (Chicago Bears) and Sean Payton (Denver Broncos) will each face the Raiders this season, and insisted that they’re not worried about giving Brady access to their clubs. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini shared on Wednesday’s “Scoop City” podcast (h/t Bleacher Report’s Andrew Peters) that executives around the league are “split” on whether or not Brady working for Fox could give the Raiders an unfair advantage regarding future games, potential trades and free-agency pursuits.
“There are some teams who are like, ‘I do not care,'” Russini explained about responses she got to questions about Brady’s two roles. “Like literally that was the text back; ‘I do not care, we do not care. It does not bother us.'”
Conflict of interest “happens all the time” in the NFL
Bradyreportedly can earn up to $375M over 10 seasons per the terms of his Fox deal. Naturally, the network will do anything it can to keep Brady as its lead analyst, given the attention he attracts.
“As someone who has held many different roles, I understand conflict of interest and accept that it happens all the time,” Brandt added. “But this one is very public. The NFL is going to continue to squirm around it in allowing a partial owner to be a national broadcaster. Once again, greater talent equals greater tolerance.”
It remains to be seen if Brady will address the conflict of interest hanging over his status during his call of this Sunday’s Bears-Cowboys clash.