Tom Brady is a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. He is also Fox Sports’ lead NFL color analyst. Balancing the conflict of interest between these two worlds has been a hot topic among fans, media, and the NFL.
And what happened on Monday Night Football did not help.
Cameras showed Brady in the Raiders’ coaches’ booth with a headset. The interview answered several questions people had about Brady’s level of involvement with day-to-day team operations, as ESPN’s Peter Schrager pointed out.
“We’ve got a special member of the Raiders ownership group here today, and that is Tom Brady, who is in the house and is with the coaches’ box here tonight,” Peter Schrager said while Brady was being shown on camera. “Was wondering how much Brady really had an involvement with this team. We hear so much about Brady as the owner. Chip Kelly told us this. He talks to Brady two to three times a week. They go through film, they go through the game plan. And Brady is a luxury for the coaches. Who else has an owner who has been there and done that?”
The sight of Brady looking very involved, even deeply involved with the inner workings of the Raiders, knowing full well that Brady had just come from broadcasting the Eagles-Chiefs game on Sunday, where his access to Las Vegas’ AFC West rivals could come in quite handy in the coming weeks, did not go over well with fans or media.
“In his second season with Fox, the NFL is loosening restrictions around Brady getting information before games,” according to NJ.com. “In 2024, his ownership status kept him out of production meetings.
“According to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, Brady will now be allowed to attend the broadcast meeting before a game he is covering. After becoming a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023, Brady was not allowed to talk to coaches and players during the meeting. Even though Brady is allowed in those meetings, he is still not allowed to attend and observe practices. The league did make an exception for him to watch the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs practice ahead of Super Bowl LIX.”
Between the loosening of the restrictions on Brady’s access to production meetings and the enormous controversy over the Eagles’ use of the Tush Push on Sunday, which saw no less than two Eagles offensive linemen moving before the snap, it seems as though the NFL’s chickens are coming home to roost.
The NFL had a chance to ban the Tush Push in the offseason and indeed could have prevailed against Fox to restrict Brady’s access to production meetings had they wanted to. Now, just as the league is pushing gambling more than ever, there are serious questions about the integrity of the sport.
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