Tom Brady pushes back on conflict of interest concerns over Raiders ownership, FOX broadcasting duties

Tom Brady, in addition to being a minority owner for the Las Vegas Raiders, is FOX Sports‘ lead color commentator for its NFL coverage. In recent weeks, concerns have been raised about a possible conflict of interest between his roles.

Brady has pushed back on those concerns. The seven-time Super Bowl champion defended himself in his weekly newsletter in an entry titled “Do Your Job,” published Wednesday. He wrote that “paranoid and distrustful” people are the ones who are shouting about there being a conflict of interest in his roles.

“I love football,” Brady wrote. “At its core it is a game of principles. And with all the success it has given me, I feel I have a moral and ethical duty to the sport; which is why the point where my roles in it intersect is not actually a point of conflict, despite what the paranoid and distrustful might believe. Rather, it’s the place from which my ethical duty emerges: to grow, evolve, and improve the game that has given me everything.”

These concerns existed last year, Brady’s first season as a broadcaster. They reached a new high during the Week 2 Monday Night Football game between the Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers. Brady was seen sitting in the coaches’ box with a headset on. ESPN sideline reporter Peter Schrager revealed that Brady regularly talks with offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and the two “go through the game plan” together. Both Kelly and head coach Pete Carroll said that report was not accurate.

NFL releases statement on Tom Brady in Las Vegas Raiders coaches’ booth

“I’ve spent a lot of time just talking football with [Brady], but it’s not on a — we don’t talk about game plans,” Kelly said. “We spent a lot of time over the summer, a couple Zooms… and we would just talk ball, you know, ‘What did you like against this?’

“So really, when I use Tom, and I just use him as a resource of, ‘Hey, you know, when you faced a Mike Zimmer-type defense, what did you like protection-wise and play-wise?’ But on a weekly basis, he’s not game planning with us or talking to us.”

While Brady is limited as a broadcaster in terms of pregame meetings for production and attending other team facilities, he is not prohibited from being in the coaches’ box, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in a statement. Brady added there is no “dilemma” between his roles.

“When you live through uncertain and untrusting times like we are today, it is very easy to watch a person’s passions and profession intersect, and to believe you’re looking at some sort of dilemma,” Brady wrote. “Because when you’re blinded by distrust, it’s hard to see anything other than self-interest. People who are like that, particularly to a chronic, pathological degree, are telling on themselves.

“They’re showing you their worldview and how they operate. They’re admitting that they can only conceive of interests that are selfish; that they cannot imagine a person doing their job for reasons that are greater than themselves. (These kinds of people make horrible teammates, by the way.)”