Far be it from me to suggest, in any shape or form, how Tom Brady should do anything related to the game of football. He’s the greatest quarterback of all time (at the moment anyway) and no one did the playoffs better than Brady.
But despite Brady’s performance as the lead color commentator for Fox improving over his postseason stretch, it’s impossible to suggest he’s preparing the same way he did when he was with the Patriots or Buccaneers because of broadcast restrictions put in place by the NFL after Brady became a minority owner with the Raiders.
To wit: according to a PFWA pool report from the Chiefs practice on Wednesday, Brady was not present to view what Kansas City was doing ahead of Super Bowl LIX.
Listed as present by the pool report were the following Fox Super Bowl analysts: Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi, Jimmy Johnson, Curt Menefee, Julian Edelman, Peter Schrager and Kristina Pink.
Brady, as one of the most famous human beings on the planet, is extremely notable in his absence. And that’s because even though “The Brady Rules” (a.k.a. restrictions on Brady’s access to teams when he’s calling their games) were suspended ahead of the Super Bowl, they weren’t completely rescinded. Brady, according to what Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters this week, will be allowed at production meetings for Kansas City, but will not be allowed to view the team practice.
And this is not me criticizing Brady as an analyst at all. I think he’s improved dramatically over the course of his first season with Burkhardt and that’s coming from someone who believed it was a bit foolish of Fox to move away from Greg Olsen, who was/is spectacular in the booth with his analysis. But Brady is making $30 million a year over 10 years to be the primary color analyst for Fox and he’s calling the Super Bowl. It’s kind of a big deal he gets to see the Chiefs practice!
It’s just an incredibly unusual situation, certainly one we’ve never seen before in the history of the NFL. Brady is partial owner of the Raiders, who are the Chiefs’ division rival. He was heavily involved in hiring Pete Carroll. If I’m the Chiefs, I don’t want him attending our practices. Not during the regular season and definitely not when we’re honing in on how to prepare for the Super Bowl. And that’s without getting into the whole idea that him being there having some bizarre authorized parallels to SpyGate.
Now, Edelman is there along with Burkhardt and a bunch of other Fox colleagues. They can fill Brady in on what happened pretty easily. But it’s not the same as Brady having eyeballs on the Chiefs practicing, because he sees things 99% of people aren’t going to see when it comes to people preparing to play football. It’s why Fox hired him.
Roger Goodell addressed the issue during his State of the League press conference earlier this week, downplaying any concerns with Brady and noting the restrictions that have been put in place, telling reporters Brady checks in regularly to make sure he’s meeting expectations.
“Tom has been incredibly cooperative. He calls frequently about it and says, ‘Am I doing OK?'” Goodell said. “I think he’s serious that he separates the two and doesn’t put the league or anyone in a position of conflict.”
Brady is a pro, so he probably does. He wants to be great at everything and I have zero doubt his current desire is to be the best possible broadcaster he can be and probably the “greatest broadcaster of all time.”
Can you imagine Brady setting any other goal? Absolutely not. But it’s also impossible to imagine Brady skipping an opportunity to be the best by seeing one of the Super Bowl teams practice just days ahead of the game. Because of the inherent conflict of interest, he’s having to do just that.
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