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New Raiders part-owner Tom Brady can, in fact, call Las Vegas games on Fox airwaves. The NFL confirmed as much Thursday after Brady’s long-awaited 10% stake in the team was unanimously approved by owners at the owners meetings in Atlanta earlier this week.
It took Brady nearly a year and a half to get to that point. In addition to worries about “the quality of his money,” as ESPN reported, there were obvious concerns about his role as Fox’s lead analyst on Sundays.
Brady and investor Tom Wagner reportedly paid $220 million for their share at a $3.5 billion evaluation of the team.
Even before the stake was finalized, the league essentially neutered Brady’s ability to learn about the teams he was covering, as the other owners worried about an interested party getting inside information about their teams.
These are the restrictions that Brady has been working under, as reported by Seth Wickersham in August:
- He can’t criticize teams or refs.
- He can’t enter teams’ facilities.
- He can’t attend practices.
- He can’t join pregame production meetings with teams or players—in person or virtually.
- He’s subject to the league’s gambling and tampering policies.
The Cowboys told ESPN this week that they prefer Brady to attend their meetings when covering their games.
Fox signed Brady to a 10-year, $375 million deal as soon as his retirement papers were dry; the legendary quarterback took a year away from the league before replacing Greg Olsen as Fox’s No. 1 analyst this year. His broadcasting career got off to a halting start, although the broad consensus is that Brady has been gradually improving.
Brady’s two jobs were a major topic in Atlanta this week. Normally placid league commissioner Roger Goodell appeared somewhat agitated when asked by Front Office Sports about how the NFL got comfortable with the deal.
“Tom’s been abiding by the issues that we raised through the [finance] committee voluntarily since he began his broadcasting,” Goodell said. “That’s all been resolved, outlined very clearly, and everybody seems to be satisfied with that.”
Or not. Finance committee chairman and Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who will now share a division with Brady, said that the broadcasting situation raised eyebrows.
“I think a lot of owners around the league felt that was a potential conflict,” Hunt said. “It’s hard to know whether it will be an actual conflict, but it can be a potential conflict or perceived conflict.”
— With Eric Fisher reporting from Atlanta
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