Tom Brady’s conflict of interest between his job with Fox and his partial ownership of the Raiders took center stage on Saturday night, given his team’s interest in Lions coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. Fox had an absolute obligation to disclose the situation to the audience at the outset of the game.
It sort of happened during the game, with a question from Kevin Burkhardt and a talk-but-say-nothing response from Brady.
Via Dan Shanoff of TheAthletic.com, here’s the exchange:
Burkhardt: “You know, Tom, you picked up a little side hustle a couple months ago. You know, buying a minority share of the Raiders. So, you know, just normal type stuff. With that, a cool thing is that you get to be on these interviews and this head-coaching search. And, obviously, we told you Glenn and Ben Johnson have done that. How have you evaluated them?”
(Quick note: Calling a $220 million investment a “side hustle” is a curious choice of words.)
Brady: “Just been a great learning experience. What you realize is that the league is full of great potential. What I believe — the resumes, the accolades are all earned by what people do on the field. You earn your opportunities and you do your performance and let that all do the talking. Just as it should be and as I did when I was a player.”
Beyond that, and per Shanoff, Brady never mentioned Johnson’s name.
After a disastrous, flew-too-close-to-the-sun-on-wings-of-pastrami trick play that resulted in receiver Jameson Williams throwing an interception, Brady initially didn’t respond to Burkhardt’s characterization of Johnson’s play call as a “disaster.”
Later, Brady said this of that fateful play: “Tried to run something a little bit gimmicky . . . and at this point, Williams trying to make a decision, a non-quarterback, trying to throw the ball and read a defense and . . . not a great time for a trick play.”
Brady, who is prohibited from being “egregiously critical” (whatever that means) of game officials, was silent when rules analyst Mike Pereira said a flag should have been thrown on the post-interception block that sent quarterback Jared Goff first to the ground and then to the blue tent.
The good news for Brady is that he has interviewed none of the coordinators in the NFC Championship. And if Saturday night’s game has put Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingbury (a former Brady teammate in New England) on the Raiders’ radar screen, it will be wise for the Raiders to keep that quiet until after the game. Otherwise, we probably won’t hear Kingsbury’s name next week, either.
Meanwhile, and as noted by Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com, Fox Sports president of programming and production Brad Zager dubbed it “ridiculous” for anyone to question Brady over the real (not perceived) conflict of interest that his dual roles have created. Which apparently means Fox thinks it’s also “ridiculous” for the NFL to prevent Brady from attending practices or production meetings, or from setting foot in the 31 team facilities other than the one he partially owns.
It’s far from ridiculous. It’s a very real conflict of interest. Others can downplay it for whatever reason they choose, but it’s real. And there’s at least one other network with which I’m somewhat familiar that would have told Brady to pick a lane between analyzing games of all teams and owning one of them.
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