ATLANTA — The Tom Brady legend, in many ways, began with the infamous “Tuck Rule” game in 2002 that helped propel the quarterback to the first of his seven Super Bowl titles. Now Brady is officially a part-owner of the Raider team he vanquished in the snow more than two decades ago.
NFL team owners unanimously approved Brady as a minority owner of the Raiders during their fall business meeting, completing an expected but long-delayed transaction in which he and business partner Tom Wagner will gain about a 10% equity stake in the franchise. Brady’s former Patriots teammate, Richard Seymour, is also part of the transaction. Brady will personally hold about a 5% stake.
“It’s great that Tom Brady wants to invest in the NFL,” said league commissioner Roger Goodell. “He cares deeply about this game. He believes in its future, and this is a statement of that.”
Following the vote, Brady issued a statement thanking his partners and NFL owners for helping to facilitate the deal.
“Throughout my NFL career, I’ve learned that at its core, football is a game of teamwork, resilience, and a relentless pursuit of excellence,” he said. “The Raiders franchise, and the city of Las Vegas, embody these same values, and I’m honored to become part of that story.”
That wasn’t the only team equity transaction approved Tuesday. Also gaining clearance was a sale of 27% of the Chargers from Dea Spanos Berberian to Tom Gores, owner of the NBA’s Pistons. The transaction helps resolve a dispute within the Spanos family, which has had majority control of the Chargers for four decades.
Rules of the Road
Because of Brady’s dual role as both team co-owner and broadcaster with Fox Sports, there are a number of restrictions placed on him. Among them is a prohibition on performing common television analyst functions such as attending broadcast production meetings with coaches and players, and watching practices. Brady is also not allowed at team facilities, and he cannot publicly criticize game officials and other clubs.
“That’s all been resolved very clearly, and everybody seems to be satisfied with that,” Goodell said.
TV Talk
The NFL team owners, meanwhile, received an update on the league’s television performance to date, which is showing 1% growth from this point last year. Several factors were cited in supporting that growth, including a continuing highlight of top teams in key windows, a resurgence of teams such as the Bears and Commanders, and on-field competition trends that have shown an unprecedented number of games so far this season decided by seven or fewer points.
That viewership is now set for a further boost with a recent agreement between the NFL and ESPN parent company Disney to expand the simulcasts on ABC of Monday Night Football.
“We all felt this was a very pro-fan thing to do,” said Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer. “I think [Disney] had their own issues to work out internally, but … increasing reach is our mission, and broadcast television helps us do that.”
Rolapp, however, refused to say whether the NFL will carve out a new package of international rights as the league continues to expand its number of non-U.S. games.
“That’s really all to be determined,” he said of creating a new international-game-specific rights package. “But there’s clearly been a focus on international, how we grow the game there, grow our commercial operations, grow the fan base. That certainly has a lot to do with how we do our game packages, both here and abroad. But we haven’t made any decisions yet.”
Uniform Deliberations
NFL team owners also received an update on negotiations for the league’s next rights deal for on-field uniforms. The current pact, held by Nike, expires after the 2027 season. Bidding is said to be “open and active” with multiple suitors. Regardless of who wins oversight of the uniform rights, though, the actual uniform manufacturing will remain as is, and led by Wisconsin-based Ripon Athletic—similar to how the NHL recently transitioned its official uniform rights to Fanatics. NFL EVP Renie Anderson is leading the negotiations on behalf of the league.
With the bevy of throwback and alternate uniform sets developed across the NFL in recent years, the scale of the overall rights has never been larger.
Swift Moves
- The Jaguars’ $1.4 billion renovation deal for EverBank Stadium also received unanimous approval. The agreement includes $775 million in taxpayer funds toward the project. “It’s hard to call it even a renovation,” Goodell said, citing the massive ambition contained in the effort.
- Goodell also received a lighthearted question in his press availability about the prospect of pop icon Taylor Swift, the girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, buying into a team. “If she’s interested, I think she has the ability to do it, let’s put it that way,” Goodell said.
