As Tom Brady begins his third season as the No. 1 NFL analyst at Fox and his second full season as a minority owner (but majority influence) over the Raiders, he has no plan to step away from the effort to keep two very large plates spinning.
In a recent article from Sports Business Journal regarding Fox’s development of NFL on-air talent, Brady reiterates his intent to continue to hold both jobs — while also pushing back on the obvious criticism that his divided attention makes it impossible for him to be as good as he can be at each assignment.
“It’s clickbait for people and it’s something that people have no idea what they’re really glomming onto,” Brady told SBJ. (If he’s secretly planning to run for president some day, he’s already perfecting the attack-the-messenger routine.) “They just put it out there in the world and see what sticks. So to me, I just focus on what I need to do to be prepared. That’s what I did as a player, and I go out there every week as a broadcaster and try to do the same thing.”
That’s fine, but when Brady was a player he was a player and only a player. He wasn’t trying to do something else, like run a football team.
The mere fact that restrictions apply to his access to NFL teams makes it harder for him to be as prepared as he could be for Fox, beyond the fact there are only 24 hours in a given day. And that fuels the most valid observation about Brady’s insistence on wearing two hats: It’s impossible for him to be the very best broadcaster he can be and the very best owner he can be.
His recent newsletters ooze with principles that can’t be applied to his own existence. Especially when all of the other stuff he does is added to the mix. Regardless, Brady will ignore the critics (even if their criticism has merit) and keep running the Raiders and collecting massive checks from the Murdochs.
“I have a lot to prove to myself, to my teammates. I have a lot to prove to the executives,” Brady said. “I want to go earn it and I don’t want anything given to me. I hope they’ll have me through the end of this contract. I love getting to enjoy the game. I love watching good football. There’s such great camaraderie and chemistry we all have together. We have seminars. We have off-site retreats. We have text threads with all of us. It feels like a big family in so many ways, and I was not really expecting that when I decided to take the job.”
And every minute he spends doing that is one less minute he has available to help the Raiders.
That’s the biggest reason why other teams don’t mind that Brady continues to work for Fox. We’ve argued in the past that it won’t be an issue until the Raiders become consistent contenders. Some in league circles believe that, as long as Brady is splitting his time between his two primary gigs (along with the other stuff), the Raiders will never become contenders on his obscenely-expensive watch.
Some teams are far more worried about Matt Ryan’s role with the Falcons, given that he gave up his seat at CBS, moved to Atlanta, and went all in. Ryan may have a much better chance to turn around a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2017, because Ryan is fully focused on doing it.
Brady is focused on his job at Fox. And he’s focused on his role with the Raiders. And he’s focused on the various other paychecks he chases, perhaps in the hopes of making enough money to eventually become the majority owner of a team.
So, yes, he’ll keep doing whatever he chooses to do. And no one in the NFL ecosystem will ever tell him no. And, until he becomes as singularly obsessed with his football team as he was when he was a player, it will be even harder for his football team to be a real factor.
That doesn’t mean the Raiders won’t turn it around. If it does, however, Brady likely won’t be the reason for it — even if he gets the credit.
