ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio joined 670 The Score’s Bernstein & Holmes for his weekly visit, and he didn’t hold back when the subject of the restrictions the NFL has put on Tom Brady as a broadcaster and potential team owner came up. Laurence Holmes asked Florio right away, “What do people need to know when they’re watching and listening to Tom Brady on what he can and can’t do now that he might also be an owner?
Florio said the league had said they reached an understanding as to what the limitations would be back in May, “given the very clear conflict of interest that arises when you own a piece of a franchise and you are given access to practice facilities, meetings with quarterbacks and coaches, inside information about teams that compete, directly or indirectly, with the team that you own a piece of. And the league at the time wouldn’t say what the restrictions were.”
Florio noted the conflicting reports that have come out where ESPN.com said that once Brady’s completes his transaction with Raders owner Mark Davis, he would be frozen out of access to any other teams. He then said that today, the AP is reporting those restrictions will be in place now since Brady and Davis have a deal agreed to between them.
Florio explained, “So he’s not allowed to go into the facility. He’s not allowed to meet with the quarterback, the coach, any other players during the production meetings that happen before every game is televised by any of the networks, can’t go to practice, can’t even criticize officials during the game, lest he be fined by the league for doing so. I feel like the league is trying to get him to pick a lane here.”
Florio said the NFL might be asking Brady to decide if he wants to be a broadcaster or if he wants to be a league owner. The league does not seem to have much interest in him doing both.
“This is a curveball that is coming straight for Tom Brady’s temple a week and a half before his debut with Fox,” Florio said.
Holmes added, “All those things that you talked about, the restrictions are exactly why you would want Tom Brady. You would want Tom Brady to have a conversation with the quarterback of the other team. And you would want all of his analysis of what he saw in practice leading up to the game. I know that he can just grind his face off watching film, but it makes him a lesser broadcaster because of some of these restrictions.”
With that, Florio responded that he believes Brady should do the right thing and to him that is to step aside as a broadcaster if he cannot have access to the things the other broadcasters would have access to.
“It’s selfish of him to move forward, knowing that the audience will get something less than what it otherwise would get,” Florio said. “You have a guy who has a hand tied behind his back at a minimum. He’s reacting to all of this just based upon whatever preparation he does on film.”
Florio also said he thinks this might be a sign of what is to come when the owners are to vote on whether or not they approve of Brady buying into the Raiders. “If they’re going to put these restrictions in place before they vote on whether or not he’s going to own a piece of the team, I think when it’s time to vote, there’s going to be at least nine owners who say no, blocking him from owning a piece of the Raiders,” he said.
“If he really hasn’t considered some of these things, it tells me he wants to be paid to be Tom Brady, which is different than doing that job as best you can,” Dan Bernstein said.
Florio thinks it is more of Brady thinking the league wouldn’t put rules on him that would really make it any harder for him to do his job. “He’s got to be pissed about this,” Florio said. “The question is, what does he do? Does he double down? Does he refuse to yield? Does he pick a lane?”
