Despite numerous hot takes about the subject offered by analysts and sports media insiders since this past summer, there continues to be no sign that the NFL has any problem with Tom Brady serving as both Fox's lead in-game analyst and as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
During a recent appearance on Jimmy Traina's "Sports Illustrated Media Podcast," NBC Sports NFL insider Mike Florio boldly claimed that the network would handle the Brady situation.
"I’ve been with NBC for 15 years now," Florio said, Brendon Kleen of Awful Announcing shared. "There is no way in hell NBC would give Tom Brady a microphone when he owns a piece of a team. They would never do it. They would say, 'Tom you’ve gotta pick a lane. You cannot do this.' Fox should have done that. Which explains why, if they’re willing to do it, then they’ll just brush it under the rug, do a word salad, check the box handling of it."
Brady and Fox agreed to a 10-year, $375M deal long before it was known that he could become a minority owner of a franchise so early in his broadcasting career. While he must follow strict guidelines regarding what he can say and do as part of his official Fox duties, such rules clearly haven't stopped him from playing active roles in the Raiders' ongoing rebuild, which includes the club's search for a new head coach.
Brady is on track to call Super Bowl LIX for Fox next month. It's unclear what the network will do if it has the rights to a Super Bowl game featuring the Raiders before Brady's contract expires.
"Here’s where the league will sour on it," Florio added during the podcast chat. "When they realize that Brady having this ability as an owner to constantly have his finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving NFL, going into these stadiums, talking to these people. When they see a wavy line between that and the Raiders no longer being a team that the other teams don’t have to worry about, that might be when some of the owners say, 'Hey we’ve gotta stop this.'"
Brady said earlier this week he's "had the best time at Fox" and is already looking forward to his second season "and way beyond that" with the network. While the situation could change, it sounds like Brady doesn't intend to voluntarily step away from Fox anytime soon.
