Tom Brady already faces several restrictions as he juggles his roles as part-owner of the Raiders and as an announcer for FOX Sports. As the iconic QB’s television gig continues to evolve, the NFL may implement even more rules to prevent any competitive advantages for the Las Vegas franchise.
[RELATED: Bigger Role In Vegas For Tom Brady In Future?]
According to Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, some NFL owners recently discussed complications surrounding Brady’s one-on-one player interviews. The league pointed to a recent chat between Brady and Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes, and there are concerns that the NFL may need to create additional conditions “to ensure Brady does not receive information he shouldn’t as a Raiders partner.”
Specifically, the NFL is considering restricting Brady to “live or recorded interviews for broadcast only,” which will ensure that his conversations are shared publicly. The NFL would also prohibit Brady from having private one-on-one conversations with players, and the NFL could force Brady to conduct broadcast interviews outside of team facilities and even outside of team hotels. The interviews could also require prior approval and monitoring by the league.
The NFL has already prohibited Brady from attending pregame production meetings with coaches/players. Brady is also barred from visiting opposing teams’ practice facilities, and he’s not allowed to publicly criticize officials. As Fischer notes, these restrictions are common for any team owners, although they naturally provide some obstacles for Brady as a broadcaster. According to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, one team attempted to waive these restrictions and allow Brady to attend a pre-production meeting. However, the NFL refused, and Florio says there was a sense that neither FOX Sports nor their broadcaster were interested “in pushing back.”
Beyond Brady’s announcing role, the former QB’s role as a Patriots team ambassador is also under the microscope. The future Hall of Famer will always be connected to the franchise, and per Fischer, he agreed in 2023 to occasionally attend Patriots events. The league is debating whether it’s “appropriate” for Brady to have a role with one team while serving as a part-owner of another franchise.
If the finance committee decides to act on any of these restrictions, the matter could be taken up by all of the league’s owners. NFL owners are set to meet in mid-December.
This is just getting ridiculous. Don’t let him interview anyone and be done with it. NFL either should not have let him buy part of the Raiders or become an announcer. They were under no obligation to allow either. They made money off Brady buying in. They do not make money off him announcing. Him announcing was not a bargaining chip in the last TV deal from what I remember.
I agree that the owners paranoia has become ridiculous. Let’s be honest. You could hand Brady your playbook and game plan for the coming matchup and the Raiders still wouldn’t be smart enough to gain a “competitive advantage”.
The fact that apparently it didn’t occur to some people until now that Tom’s conflict of interest could potentially pose serious issues is beyond mind-boggling to me.
Why so many workarounds for a subpar broadcaster? Especially with so many actual professionals who would take far smaller contracts to call games.
Conflict of interest? Ownership revenue is not tied to team performance so Brady only gains from the Raiders winning more if he decides to sell his ownership stake to someone else. And what about all the other former players that broadcast? They would be even more biased than Brady, so why is it that they have no conflict of interest? Romo for example may not have an ownership stake but would he be any less capable of leaking information to his former team to give them a competitive advantage? The owners putting a target on Brady is just another example of the league’s rampant hypocrisy.
Tom?
This dude getting $100 million and being told to do less work every week. Some guys have all the luck.
Raiders could have 13 guys on defense and still lose. I don’t think braady talking to people makes a d amn of difference
The owners have a paranoia about Brady (probably as a result of the deflating footballs incident). If they can’t force him out of that broadcasting job they will simply instruct game officials to make calls against the Raiders to offset the competitive advantage Brady is supposedly giving his team. Then Goodell will get on his pedestal and tell us all how much the NFL values the integrity of the game.
How can he be restricted from criticizing the refs when he broadcasts games? So when he sees an obvious facemask that wasn’t called, he needs to ignore what we are all looking at on replay? That’s stupid.
I enjoy listening to how Brady tap dances around his prohibition to criticize anybody during the broadcast.
Like, what’s he going to say if 2 players engage in a fight without violating these rules?
How will Tom Brady announce the Giants-Boys Thanksgiving game without criticizing either team?
Tom should just quit after the season. He’s not good at the broadcasting thing and Fox can fix what they never should have done anyway and put Olsen back with Burkhardt
Like any advantage for Raiders would help. Lmao
Why not let him out of his contract, he adds nothing….and now more nothing.
Know how to do that? Have Brady and his lawyer meet face-to-face with Roger Goodell who tells them, “You work for the Las Vegas Raiders or you work for Fox Sports. You don’t do both.”
I’ve never heard of a law that prevents someone from having more than one source of income. The NFL owners in fact have a diverse set of incomes. The owners were actually idiots to kick up such a fuss here. Fox is now in a position where they will likely drop Brady to calm down Goodell and the other stooges, but not before extorting the NFL for the cost of Brady’s salary plus a little extra.