The elephant in the room has a name and it is Tom Brady. For many, he is the best player in NFL history, but he is also a commentator on FOX and at the same time a minority shareholder in the Las Vegas Raiders, one of the most popular teams in the league and currently in search of a new coach.
The problem is that Brady, according to various news reports, has decided to play an active role in the search for his team's head coach and TB12 has had to comment on games of some of those candidates, creating a serious conflict of interest, despite the NFL and FOX, the network for which the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback works, trying to downplay it.
What did Brady do during the Lions vs Commanders game?
The alarms went off when Brady, along with commentator Kevin Burkhardt, commented on the game between the Detroit Lions and the Washington Commanders, in the divisional round of the National Conference.
Ben Johnson, the Lions' offensive coordinator, emerged as the top candidate for head coach for several teams, including the Raiders. Interestingly, Brady did not mention Johnson's name throughout the FOX broadcast, and the same happened with Aaron Glenn, Detroit's defensive coordinator who was also on the Las Vegas team's list.
Dianna Russini, a journalist for The Athletic, revealed that Brady had a Zoom conversation with Johnson for several hours last week to try to convince him to sign with the Raiders.
Unfortunately for Las Vegas and TB12, Johnson finally signed with the Chicago Bears and Aaron Glenn became the head coach of the New York Jets.
Without their main candidates, now Kliff Kingsbury, the offensive coordinator of Washington and former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals could enter the Raiders' list. The Commanders will play the NFC final this Sunday against the Eagles. Who will commentate on that game? Burkhardt and Brady for FOX.
In any case, the NFL did not provide any additional recommendations to Brady for the Lions game, and FOX described as "ridiculous" the questions about a potential conflict of interest of the commentator who is paid 37.5 million dollars a year and will be the star in the upcoming Super Bowl broadcast.
The NFL implemented the "Brady Rule."
Prior to the 2024 season and once his entry into the ownership of the Raiders was confirmed, the NFL imposed severe restrictions on Brady's work at FOX as a commentator.
The main restrictions were the prohibition of attending production meetings with the teams that he is going to comment on, access to the facilities of those clubs, or talking to the players and coaches before the matches he is going to analyze. These situations are common and essential for the work that commentators and analysts do week after week, but for Brady, they were forbidden.
Brady can indeed talk to the coaches on the court before the games.
Despite the restrictions, controversies, and criticisms he has received in his first year as a commentator, the “GOAT” seems determined to continue his duties as a commentator for NFL games on FOX.