Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
At this point, the question isn’t really whether Tom Brady can figure out how to become – and remain – an upper echelon NFL broadcaster. First, while the bar is set moderately high, it doesn’t stretch to infinity. Second, Brady is a quick study, as anyone watching the Fox broadcasts could surmise.
So that’s not it. The question, instead, is how seriously viewers take Brady’s part ownership of the Vegas Raiders, and whether they think it colors what the man says on air.
Brady has had a couple of broadcasts since his buy-in on the Raiders became official, and there’s not much to make of it so far. He was pretty positive (but why not?) while doing the Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl rematch, and last weekend’s Bills-Seahawks broadcast will be remembered, if it’s remembered at all, for Brady using the word “spaz” to describe Josh Allen’s early work as a pro quarterback.
But the NFL’s restrictions on owners, including partial owners like Brady, are real enough. Owners are not to criticize the referees, for example. How does Brady get through a game without doing that, when he did it all the time as a player?
Brady also isn’t permitted to criticize other franchises, and he cannot attend pregame production meetings with other organizations. Those sessions are generally high-value targets for on-air broadcasters – who, after all, are first and foremost expected to know as much as possible about the two teams on the field.
The longtime QB has the savvy he needs to navigate that part, especially right now, in the first throes of his retirement. He’s very connected to the current state of play in the league. That could change over time, at which point those production meetings would feel more important, but for now it’s not much of an issue.
Brady can also get through a season without blatantly ripping an organization, especially considering that Fox will pay close attention to be sure he’s never teed up to do so. But that’s not the same as saying that viewers will be getting the broadcasts they want or deserve.
You don’t have to guess about the NFL’s motivation in all this. The league is constantly determined to operate behind an iron wall, and that starts with the owners’ club. You’re not likely to see an owner go off about Nick Bosa’s political stunt from the Sunday night 49ers game, for example. It’s not what they do.
But Tom Brady – he’s supposed to be different. His massive deal with Fox, when it was announced, was touted as a way for true NFL fans to really dig in deep, listening to the unfiltered views of a future Hall of Famer who thoroughly understands both the game and the league.
Brady was presented as a guy finally freed up to tell it like it was, especially once he got more comfortable behind the mike. You’re talking about a person who doesn’t need the gig, after all. Sure, it’s insanely profitable (10 years and a reported $375 million), but Brady’s financial portfolio would be fine either way. The idea was that Brady would absolutely say what he thought, because – well, because why not?
But we now have the why not right in front of us. Brady, as a part owner of the Raiders, has reasons to pull his punches, to withhold his true feelings about a significant NFL issue or the way a certain franchise is being operated. If a team is a flaming wreckage and part of the reason is terrible, sustained mal-ownership, does Fox simply not ask Brady about it?
This sounds like an NFL dream, by the way – milking Brady’s gravitas for TV ratings without having to worry about him saying something truthful that happens to be unflattering. Instead, Brady will break down some X’s and O’s, maybe focus in on why a play did or didn’t work.
That’s useful, but it’s not everything. We liked the idea of freewheeling Brady, in part because he’s always been salty enough to matter. Although it’s still early, we like the idea of the part owner of the Raiders sitting in the booth a lot less.
Mark Kreidler is a national award-winning writer whose work has appeared at ESPN, the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and dozens of other publications. He’s also a sports-talk veteran with stops in San Francisco and Sacramento, and the author of three books, including the bestselling “Four Days to Glory.” More of his writing can be found at https://markkreidler.substack.com. He is also reachable on Twitter @MarkKreidler.
