Why does the league tolerate Tom Brady’s stubborn insistence on covering all 32 teams as Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst, while also owning a piece of one of the franchises? One factor is that the Raiders are currently uncompetitive.
Its unique access to competitors has yet to yield results. So let him talk to the players and coaches throughout the week. Let him be on the field before games, gathering useful information on potential free agents, trade targets, coaching hires and general league trends. It doesn’t matter.
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Brady didn’t receive approval for his minority stake in the Raiders until October 2024. Last year’s 4-13 debacle is not his fault. This year, he is at least partly responsible for the 2-9 disaster.
The GOAT is far from being a passive investor. His below-market price for part of the team was justified by what he would bring to the table. In January, majority owner Mark Davis made it clear that Brady was the new right-hand man. The confidant. The voice that Davis has been missing since Jon Gruden’s abrupt departure in 2021.
“Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in someone from the side of football who I missed him “(Gruden) was someone I brought here into the organization,” Davis said in January. “(Gruden) was someone that I brought in and really expected to be that person on the football side that would bring stability to the organization. He had a 10-year contract and all that, and we cut his head.”
Davis added in May: “It took four years to actually bring Tom into the building and bring that expertise and that confidence that we’re talking about. . . . There’s a vision, and Tom has a vision. I don’t think there’s anyone more competitive, that I know of, than Tom Brady. . . . Tom was brought in initially for the football side of the building. Someone who’s going to be there for a long, long time. Not as president, but someone who has skin in the game“.
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So far, Brady’s skin has suffered more than just physical injury.
Although Brady tried to describe himself as a “sound box“, he’s been much more active than that. Coach Pete Carroll — who is one loss away from the first six-game losing streak of his professional or college head coaching career — said in January that Brady was “completely” involved in the hiring process. And Carroll made it clear that Brady would play a significant role in selecting a quarterback.
“We’re going to lean on Tom as much as we can for his ideas, because no one has the same ideas as him,” Carroll said in January.
Brady’s first choice was apparently Matthew Stafford. When Stafford decided to stay with the Rams, the Raiders had to move on to other possibilities. Brady was reportedly opposed to signing Sam Darnold. The end result was a reunion for Carroll and Geno Smith. Which didn’t work.
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The first scapegoat was offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who was hired (as many believe) at the recommendation, if not insistence, of Brady. Following Kelly’s dismissal and his $6 million annual salary, someone started to run away embarrassing details about Kelly’s performance, including the astonishing claim that he sometimes called plays that were neither in the game plan nor the playbook.
The clumsy effort to justify Kelly’s firing indirectly throws mud at Brady’s judgment, if he actually targeted and recommended Kelly. The team’s overall performance casts doubt on the utility of leveraging Brady’s immense success as a player to build a properly functioning football organization.
Obviously, Davis won’t point the finger at Brady. It will be someone else’s fault. This could lead to yet another off-season reset. But that would put even more emphasis on Brady’s role, even if there’s no accountability. He’s an owner. As 49ers CEO Jed York once said, “You don’t fire owners. »
The fact that Brady has a finger in so many different pots could earn him a pass. Or it may increase surveillance. How many NFL owners pursue a wide range of different business endeavors at any given time, while also holding down a full-time broadcast job during the season?
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This isn’t a problem for most minority owners, who buy as an investment, a vanity play, a precursor to buying their own team, or some combination thereof. For Brady, who is specifically here to spread Patriot Way DNA on the Raiders, his ever-expanding professional portfolio isn’t just a problem.
It’s a problem.
