Former Patriot Jason McCourty was among those to share their perspective.
Former Patriot Jason McCourty was among those to share their perspective.
Tom Brady’s roles as owner vs. commentator: Tom Brady has somehow seen his relationship with the game of football become more entangled since retiring from his playing career. The 48-year-old Patriots legend is now a minority owner of the Raiders while simultaneously working as Fox Sports’ lead color commentator for its NFL broadcasts.
The possible conflicts of interest with this dual reality bubbled back to the surface when Brady was spotted wearing a headset in the Raiders’ coaching box during the Monday Night Football loss to the Chargers on Sept. 15.
It was brought up and discussed during ESPN’s coverage of the game, with NFL analyst Peter Schrager reporting that Las Vegas offensive coordinator Chip Kelly speaks with Brady “two to three times a week,” going through film and game plans.
Raiders head coach Pete Carroll later said that the claim made by Schrager was “not accurate” per ESPN’s Ryan McFadden. Still, he added an additional quote that outlined a fairly direct relationship between Brady and the Raiders’ staff.
“We have conversations. I talk to Tom, Chip talks to Tom regularly,” Caroll said, per McFadden. “We have a tremendous asset. And we all get along and respect each other. We just talk about life and football. He has great insight, so we’re lucky to have him as an owner.”
Given Brady’s theoretical access to teams’ game-plans (or other relevant information) as a broadcaster attending off-the-record production meetings, questions have been raised about possible conflicts of interest due to his stake in the Raiders.
This quickly became a point of conversation, with former Patriot (and ex-Brady teammate) Jason McCourty among those to weigh in. Now an NFL commentator himself, McCourty described the possible advantages a person could gain from the television production meetings.
