The questions about Tom Brady’s dual roles as a Fox Sports NFL analyst and partial owner of the Las Vegas Raiders have intensified after he was shown in the team’s coaching booth with a headset on during a 20-9 loss Monday night to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks on Tuesday sidestepped any such questions about the perception of a possible conflict of interest.
“I’m not going to answer that one. Good question, but not gonna answer that,” Shanks said when asked during Front Office Sports’ Tuned In event if he could sympathize with Chicago Bears fans who might see a conflict. Brady will be in Dallas on Sunday when the Cowboys host the Bears. The following week, Chicago is at the Raiders.
“I think if there’s a conversation that needs to be had after last night, we’ll have it,” Shanks added.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an email to The Associated Press that Brady was sitting in the booth Monday night in his capacity as a Raiders limited partner.
“There are no policies that prohibit an owner from sitting in the coaches’ booth or wearing a headset during a game,” McCarthy said. “All personnel sitting in the booth must abide by policies that prohibit the use of electronic devices other than league-issued equipment such as a Microsoft Surface Tablet for the Sideline Viewing System.”
Raiders coach Pete Carroll said he knew Brady would be in the booth and pointed out that Brady also was in the booth when the Raiders played the San Francisco 49ers in a preseason game on Aug. 16 in Las Vegas.
Carroll said he understands the attention and concerns Monday night’s appearance has generated.
“I think Tom’s really tried to honor that strictly with the concerns you’re talking about,” Carroll said. “He is not planning games with us. He is not talking to us about anything other than our conversations that are really random. They’re not structured. They’re not set up in any way. He knows. He’s very respectful of what he does otherwise. He’s of the opinion he doesn’t want to be that kind of factor and he’s not.”
The NFL has previously placed restrictions on Brady in his role as a broadcaster, though the league eased some of those this season. Brady is now allowed to participate in production meetings with teams ahead of a game, as long as they are conducted virtually or via Zoom. He still isn’t allowed to watch another team’s practices or set foot in a team’s training complex.
The Brady rules were put in place because the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback has a 5% ownership stake in the Raiders.
Last season, Brady couldn’t do production meetings until the Super Bowl in New Orleans, when he was allowed to attend meetings with Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles players and coaches. He wasn’t able to view practices.
Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said to the AP on Aug. 27 that this year’s adjustments felt like a natural step forward.
Brady still isn’t allowed to be in another team’s facility or hotel. He can conduct an interview offsite with a player, which he did a couple times last season.
Many of the network broadcast crews have done their production meetings with teams virtually, even though some still prefer getting into a city on Fridays to watch the home team and then talk to the visiting team at their hotel the next day.
Brady did not answer a question posed by AP on Monday night about the easing of the broadcast restrictions. Instead, he discussed taking part in a flag football tournament in March in Saudi Arabia.
Fox Sports analyst Greg Olsen, who also was a speaker at the Front Office Sports event in New York, said it’s up to the teams to decide how to handle production meetings, whether it is with Brady or another broadcast crew.
“There are some teams that are very guarded with their information, and it doesn’t matter if you’re an owner of another team or not: They give you very little on the calls. It’s the minority,” Olsen said. “The vast majority of the coaches, especially the ones that you develop a good relationship with, are amazing on these calls. They really give you great insight that does make a difference. Every team can decide how they want to handle those, and whatever factors they place value on, that impacts how they handle them, that’s their every right to be as forthcoming or not so with the production crews that they want.”
Fox’s top crew of Brady, Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi opened the season with the matchup between the Washington Commanders and New York Giants. Both teams face the Raiders later this season, but Commanders coach Dan Quinn didn’t seem fazed by Brady’s dual roles.
“It’s unique for sure, but they have a job to do, too, so I get that like that’s our responsibility to help them give some insights, what it could be, what could be there for the game. So, it’s really just for this game, like that’s what I think about,” Quinn said. “But not just because of Tom calling it and his relationship obviously with the Raiders, but really in every game because it’s just what do you have to do to win this game? You know, the information here wouldn’t be applied to another team in that way.”
Olsen, who was Fox’s top NFL analyst before being supplanted by Brady, said if he had the money to buy a stake in a team, he would do it.
“I’m not a hater. I say more power to him,” Olsen said. “And if I’m the Raiders and I have a minority owner like Tom Brady who I have access to and he has the experience and I can pick his brain, you would be silly not to. Why would you not utilize every resource and every aspect of your organization to try to find that slight margin to be the difference between winning and losing the game? So, from the Raiders’ perspective, I don’t blame them for using Tom.”
AP Sports Writers Stephen Whyno in New York and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to this story