Windy City Gridiron
The Ongoing Controversy Due to Brady’s Dual Role as a Sports Broadcaster and Team Owner
When Tom Brady was hired to be in the booth as a color commentator for Fox’s NFL game broadcast last year, many eyebrows among those who cover the NFL were raised, as Tom Brady is also a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. This set up a potential conflict of interest – as color commentators and broadcast journalists are often given significant access to the coaches and players of the teams they cover, so as to enhance their in-game reporting and commentary. The league’s owners voted to approve Brady’s minority stake in the Raiders, and he was allowed to retain that stake, despite being hired by Fox as a sports journalist. Last season, the NFL placed significant restrictions on Tom Brady’s access – which included a ban from production meetings and attending practices at team facilities.
The NFL relaxed some of those restrictions for the Super Bowl coverage, and the NFL decided to carry over the more permissive conditions this season. But, as the season has opened, questions about the propriety of having a part-owner also serve as a color commentator for games have arisen once again. What sparked the controversy anew was a screenshot of Tom Brady sitting in the coach’s booth of the Las Vegas Raiders. While the NFL contends that no rules were broken by Brady, the appearance of Brady in the coach’s booth with a headset on set off a firestorm of reactions on social media.
Thus, the concerns about a conflict of interest between Brady’s NFL coverage as a color commentator for Fox and his ownership interest in the Las Vegas Raiders hit the headlines. The Brady situation drew the attention of Chicago Bears beat reporters in addition to national sports writers and journalists, as the week after Tom Brady covers the game between the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys for Fox, the Bears will play the Raiders in Las Vegas.
In response to this controversy, the NFL announced that it was reinstating some of the restrictions on Brady’s participation in production meetings and player interviews:
Still, while Brady cannot go to the team facility to conduct player interviews, he is permitted to interview players off-site. Clearly, the NFL hopes the reinstated restriction on attendance at production meetings will tamp down the discussion of Brady’s dual roles, but I suspect we will continue to see this issue percolate under the surface, bubbling up on occasion when the optics are bad, as they were with Brady in the coach’s booth. As long as Brady is trying to wear both the sports journalist hat and the team owner hat, he is going to face scrutiny.
What do you think about Brady serving as a sports broadcaster and team owner? Sound off in the comments!
