After Saturday’s inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic, Tom Brady met with reporters. And while most of the questions focused on flag football, he got one about the tackle football team he partially owns.
Unfortunately, it was a two-pronged inquiry that allowed him to non-answer one half, and to completely ignore the other.
Here’s the question Brady was asked about the Raiders: “Question about your NFL job. . . . [G.M. John] Spytek has talked about you being more involved in football this year. How will your role be different? And did you have any reaction to the Maxx Crosby trade that didn’t happen?”
Brady answered only the front end.
“You know, I love being involved in the NFL,” Brady said. “Like I said, I love football. I love sports. You know, I was very fortunate in my career to be around amazing people and mentors like Robert Kraft, as an owner of a team, and now getting to work with Mark Davis in the role that I’m at, and to see kind of a different team shape, the way that things are done and how we’re evolving and growing, and, you know, we certainly have a long ways to go. And, you know, it’s — what I learned about football in 23 seasons is, it’s a tremendous amount of resilience, adversity, discipline, determination, communication, of an entire organization to see, really the value in committing to one another. So, you know, it’s always, I think, process over outcomes, and I think we’re all trying — and all of us in our own role that we have, and the role that we have, and whether it’s an ownership role or a personnel department or strength and conditioning and athletic training and obviously players and positions and offense, defense — everyone’s got to come together. Everyone has to work incredibly hard for the people next to them.”
After Brady finished, the reporter apparently tried to ask a followup regarding the failed Crosby trade. But someone else started in with another question, and the subject changed.
As to the part Brady answered, he said didn’t specifically address his current role with the Raiders. It was just word salad; big-picture observations and platitudes and filibustering and nothing meaningful about what he is actively doing to help the Raiders deal with the reality that, as he conceded, “we certainly have a long ways to go.”
Yes, the Raiders have a long way to go. And the Eastbound-and-Down Brady has a short time to get there before he’ll be labeled as a failure in his effort to turn a pro football team into a contender.
Raiders Clips
While it quickly became clear that current and former NFL players can’t compete in flag football against experienced high-level flag-football players by simply showing up and playing, one basic fact was abundantly clear during the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic.
Tom Brady can still grip it and rip it.
He continues to have a live arm. And he displayed surprising nimbleness before throwing his first touchdown pass of the day, stepping away from an effort to grab one of his flags before firing a touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs.
After the event, Brady retweeted the clip, with this message: “Gets you thinking.”
While there’s a big difference between playing limited-contact flag football on a one-off basis and enduring the week-in, week-out grind of full-contact tackle football, he looks like he could still play, even at 48. But it would be impossible for him to play for any team but the Raiders, and reporting that emerged after he struck a deal to buy a chunk of the Raiders made it clear that, even then, he’d need a vote of his fellow owners to allow him to do it.
Then again, why would they stop him from playing? They’ve already rolled over for his obvious conflict of interest from calling games for Fox and partially owning one of the franchises. He tends to get what he wants; if he really wanted to play, they’d likely let him.
The bigger issue is that the Raiders may soon have a new starting quarterback, if/when they use the first overall pick in the draft on Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Beyond that, Brady would give up (or at least press pause on) the remainder of his 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox.
Brady nevertheless said it. Even if he’s not serious about it, those three words — gets you thinking — will get people talking.
Which could be all he was trying to do.
Free agent defensive tackle Christian Wilkins did not play last season. He intends to play in 2026.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Wilkins continues to rehab his foot injury from 2024 but has heard from 26 teams about interest.
“Wilkins is expected to have a new home as soon as he wants,” Schefter wrote on social media.
Wilkins, 30, played only five games in 2024 because of a Jones fracture in his left foot. The Raiders voided the remainder of his $35.2 million in guaranteed money on his contract and cut him last July reportedly for how he treated his rehab.
An incident involving a teammate reportedly may also have played a factor.
Wilkins missed only two games in his first five seasons before landing in Las Vegas. He has totaled 372 tackles, 22.5 sacks and 56 quarterback hits since the Dolphins made him a first-round pick.
Wilkins, who signed a four-year, $110 million deal with the Raiders in free agency in 2024, now is faced with having to prove it again.
Raiders owner Mark Davis insists he’s not selling the team. He also has agreed to a succession plan, in the event he ever does.
Yes, it’s confusing.
Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN report that NFL owners are expected to vote later this month on a plan that would entail Davis both selling seven percent of the team to Silver Lake co-chief Egon Durban and Michael Meldman and giving Durban the option to buy a majority interest in the franchise, if/when Davis decides to sell.
The equity sale comes at a valuation of $10 billion. Whether a price for Davis’s controlling interest has been set is not mentioned in the report.
Davis declined comment to ESPN. An unnamed source close to Davis said this: “Mark has no intention to sell his majority stake in the team. This sets up a smooth succession plan.” (One, why in the world would that sentiment need to be expressed on an off-the-record basis? Two, the quote seems contradictory. Which may answer the first point.)
Durban already owns 7.5 percent of the team, along with Meldman.
The situation basically gives Durban a right of first refusal to buy the team from Davis. As a practical matter, it blocks Davis from selling controlling interest in the team at a grossly below-market number to Tom Brady. Which would sound ridiculous, if Davis hadn’t already sold a minority stake in the team at a grossly below-market number to Brady.
That’s the biggest takeaway from this development, as we see it. Brady won’t be able to finagle control of the team from Davis, if that possibility was even on Brady’s radar screen.
Unless, of course, Durban eventually doesn’t exercise the option.
Troy Aikman’s apparent one-off consulting role with the Dolphins has resulted in Aikman recently saying he plans to continue working for the Dolphins “in some capacity.”
That could create an issue for Aikman, ESPN, and the NFL.
In an email to PFT, a league spokesperson said the NFL “would address this at the appropriate time.”
Aikman’s specific role would likely be a factor. But if he’s doing anything as a paid employee or consultant, the league should be concerned. Although the guardrails for Fox broadcaster/Raiders minority owner Tom Brady have softened, he still can’t attend practices or enter the facilities of the other 31 teams.
Will Aikman have similar restrictions?
If he’s on the Miami payroll, he’ll have an obligation to the Dolphins. He’ll be able to gather and to share all sorts of information that he acquires as he travels from stadium to stadium, week in and week out.
For starters, the league needs to know more about what Aikman will be doing. He said he’ll continue “in some capacity.” In what capacity?
It’s a relevant question — especially since the Brady Rules, as potentially adapted to Aikman, could spark an effort by more teams to hire broadcasters as consultants or employees. With the Raiders and Dolphins doing it, the teams that aren’t are already at a disadvantage.
If, like me, you have little interest in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (West Virginia didn’t make it, again), there’s something else on TV during round two.
On Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET, Fox will televise the Fanatics Flag Football Classic, which has been relocated from Saudi Arabia to Los Angeles.
The format changed, too. In lieu of three teams full of current and former NFL players and random celebrities, one of the three teams will be the U.S. men’s national flag football team.
The rosters for the other two teams were sent on Wednesday, in a draft conducted by the Founders (led by Tom Brady and Jalen Hurts) and the Wildcats (led by Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow).
Joining Brady and Hurts on the Founders will be: Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, Saints running back Alvin Kamara, former Patriots and Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski, Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr., Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith, free-agent receiver Stefon Diggs, free-agent pass rusher Von Miller, free-agent safety Damar Hamlin, former NFL defensive back Patrick Peterson, and boxer Terence Crawford.
Beyond Daniels and Burrow on the Wildcats are: Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, free-agent receiver Odell Beckham Jr., Rams receiver Davante Adams, free-agent receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Chargers safety Derwin James Jr., Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Kuechly, Steelers safety Jalen Ramsey, Logan Paul, and someone who goes by the name iShowSpeed.
The rosters don’t include Browns defensive end Myles Garrett or free-agent receiver Deebo Samuel, who had previously been announced as participants in the game.
The U.S. men’s flag football team is led by Darrell “Housh” Doucette III, who made waves after the Olympics added flag football by declaring that he’s a better option for the assignment than Patrick Mahomes.
More recently, Doucette said he hopes flag players will have a fair shot to represent the country in the Olympics. They’re sort of getting it this weekend, and they’ll surely be taking it seriously.
If the NFL players don’t, the end result could be a realization that maybe the guys who know the rules and realities and strategies of flag football may be better suited to being on the Olympic team.
This weekend, Tom Brady will participate in a flag football tournament. It could be a precursor to participating in a bigger event two years from now.
Via NFL.com, Brady addressed on Tuesday’s episode of Good Morning America whether he’d play Olympic flag football in 2028.
“I would never say never,” Brady said.
He also said it would be “unlikely.” After all, Brady will be 50 when the next Olympics happen.
“I’ll let the young Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen get out there and try to win a gold medal for the U.S.,” Brady said.
It’s unclear whether Mahomes and Allen even want to do it. Or whether they’d be picked for the team.
That remains the great unknown as to the eventual 2028 U.S. men’s Olympic team. Who will USA Football pick for the roster? How will they do it?
Some apples-to-apples insight will be developed on Saturday, when two teams of current and former NFL players (along with random celebrities) will participate in a tournament that includes the current U.S. men’s national flag-football team.
Ultimately, USA Football will have to determine whether the 2028 team will be determined by invitation or tryout. There’s plenty of merit to the notion of a team of current and former NFL players facing the U.S. men’s team in a competition to determine which group is better suited to represent the country.
Then there’s the marketing angle. Chances are that many different combinations of elite American tackle and flag football players would easily win gold. Having big names will draw bigger ratings and drive greater interest.
Saturday’s tournament merits more attention than it would have had under its prior format of three teams of NFL players and YouTubers, or whoever. The current best of the best flag football players will get a chance to show what they can do against non-flag players who may be in for a surprise when they face a motivated team of experienced flag-football players who are well versed in the nuances of that version of the sport.
The Falcons have agreed to terms on a one-year deal, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Holmes, 27, spent the past two seasons in Las Vegas.
He played 29 games but started only one for the Raiders, seeing action on 471 defensive snaps and 126 on special teams. Holmes totaled 49 tackles, a sack and three pass breakups in his time with the Raiders.
The Giants made Holmes a fourth-round pick in 2020.
He has appeared in 83 games with 12 starts in six NFL seasons, recording 164 tackles, four interceptions, 21 passes defended, two forced fumbles and 1.5 sacks.
Holmes has experience playing the nickel, providing the team with a backup plan if Billy Bowman Jr. doesn’t return from his Achilles injury before the start of the 2026 season.
The Raiders signed offensive guard Spencer Burford on Tuesday, the team announced.
The unrestricted free agent took visits to the Chargers and Raiders this week.
Burford, 25, spent his first four seasons with the 49ers after they made him a fourth-round pick. He started 29 games in his first two seasons.
Burford was a backup in 2024 but started 11 games in 2025, including both of the 49ers’ playoff games.
He has played mostly right guard but has experience at left guard.
Burford has 2,162 offensive snaps and 273 on special teams.
The Raiders re-signed restricted free agent Thomas Booker IV, the team announced Tuesday.
The Raiders traded for the defensive tackle in training camp last summer. He appeared in all 17 games with 13 starts and totaled 44 tackles, seven quarterback hits, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and five passes defensed.
Booker, 26, entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Texans in 2022. He signed with the Eagles’ practice squad in 2023 after Houston waived him out of the preseason.
He appeared in all 17 games during the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX campaign in 2024 and recorded 18 total tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack, and one pass defensed.
In his three-year career, Booker has played 44 games with 15 starts and totaled 77 tackles, 1.5 sacks, four tackles for loss, 10 quarterback hits, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and seven passes defensed.
