Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has been in the news since he retired from football as he embarked on his new career in broadcasting.
He also began another new career in team ownership as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
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What could go wrong?
Lots. Especially according to some who consider the two occupations to be a massive conflict of interest. Brady, whose job as a broadcaster requires him to watch practices and sit in production meetings with coaches ahead of games he will broadcast, has been banned from the NFL from doing so.
So the NFL also sees it as a conflict of interest.
Brady's Raiders are in the market for a new head coach, and one of the possible candidates just happens to be the offensive coordinator for a team he is covering in this weekend's Divisional Playoff round - the Lions' Ben Johnson.
Dan Patrick sees this as another conflict of interest.
“How does that go with Tom Brady’s game this weekend?," Dan Patrick asked on his radio show Wednesday.
“He’s got the Lions game with the Commanders. What happens if they show Ben Johnson on the sideline? Is Tom Brady, minority owner of the Raiders, allowed to talk about Ben Johnson? Does he have any inside info? Which I believe he would. I love how the NFL makes it seem like, ‘This isn’t a conflict of interest.’”
The NFL hasn't exactly been fully transparent about what Brady is and isn't allowed to do as a broadcaster/owner, and Patrick doesn't think that's fair to the rest of the league.
“The NFL is bending over backward to help Tom Brady, it feels like,” he added. "Or looking the other way… How many times do you listen to a game where you’re going to be reading into, maybe an ulterior motive?”
It seems like the NFL is content to allow Brady to do both, regardless of any conflicts, because they want him involved in everything, fair or not.
