It wasn't that long ago future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady had a hand in fixing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' franchise. Now, a former NFL player says the new team he's attached to should allow him to do the same for them.
Not only that, but it should start a trend that would spread back to the same Buccaneers team Brady once led to a Super Bowl title after the team failed to even make the playoffs for years before his arrival.
Of course, when Brady arrived in Tampa Bay he also brought some friends along with him including tight end Rob Gronkowski. Those friends helped play critical roles in the championship run and are just part of the evidence for the retired quarterback to be involved in football decisions with the Las Vegas Raiders — the franchise he is now a minority owner of.
"I'm sure he's involved and I would involve him," Chris Long said on his Green Light with Chris Long (Yote House Media) program about whether or not he believes Brady will be involved with football decisions moving forward with the Raiders.
"If you invited a Tom Brady in decision-making, that's only going to improve the process," Long continued. "I think every team should have a guy like Tom Brady upstairs. There's only one Tom Brady, but there's some smart alumni that teams could lean on. I've always said this, hiring coaches, there should be a council. It should not be the owner. It should be a council of former players and people in the building who work in football. And the owner should facilitate that process."
It's a bold idea, but one that certainly has merit. Imagine, for example, if the Bucs decide to move on from head coach Todd Bowles this offseason that it is not just a task for general manager Jason Licht to take on finding a new head coach, but one that would involve former players like linebacker Derrick Brooks and cornerback Ronde Barber.
Certainly, the involvement of two beloved Buccaneers alumni would not only help ensure Licht has a more thorough picture of how any candidate resonates with players, but would also give an immediate boost of credibility to the move with Brooks and Barber's blessings attached.
With Las Vegas, the idea is a simple one. After all, Brady is a part owner and therefore there isn't a massive shift in approach to his being involved in the decision to keep head coach Antonio Pierce or move on, and possibly into the realm of other football moves like signing and drafting specific players.
Plenty of other owners, like Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers, have their hands around decisions like these without even one percent of the functional experience in the game that Brady or other esteemed alumni would bring.
It is already uncharted territory that Brady is entering, so how it goes from here is anyone's guess at this point. But one thing is certain, that the legendary quarterback is not done putting his stamp on the way NFL franchise's operate, even if his pad-wearing ball-tucking days are behind him.
