If you stayed up late to catch the second leg of ESPN’s Monday Night Football double header, you were treated to a shot of the greatest quarterback of all-time sitting in one of the coaches’ boxes, taking in the final game of Week 2 between the Chargers (2-0) and Raiders (1-1).
Without the full context, pretty harmless.
But once you realize Tom Brady is both a minority owner of the Raiders and the color commentator for FOX Sports’ No. 1 broadcast team, it starts to get a little murky.
Add in the fact that he was wearing a headset, as well as ESPN’s broadcast reporting that Brady consults with Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly two or three times a week, and now it feels like we have a full-on conflict of interest on our hands.
Brady called the Commanders’ (1-1) season opener against the Giants (0-2) in Week 1, meaning the 48-year-old was sitting in on production meetings with coaches and players for Washington in the lead up to that game.
In Week 3, his Raiders are on the road at Northwest Stadium to take on those same Commanders. If Brady is as involved as he looked last night on the broadcast, which tracks with how involved he sounds to be from ESPN’s reporting, it would only make sense that Brady would be sharing the valuable behind-the-scenes tidbits he received from the Commanders with his, well, employees to give his team the best chance to win.
If Brady is still the maniac competitor that he was for 23 years in the NFL, there should be no doubt on anyone’s mind that this is happening.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran was asked what he thought of the situation when joining Jones and Keefe for his regular Tuesday hit:
“It does seem weird. And I think [ProFootballTalk’s] Mike Florio did a good job articulating it in a long post. Tom is one of Mike's chew toys, but he makes a good point.
“It's a conflict of interest if you are that piped in with your team and that involved with your team. If you happen to sit in on a Kansas City meeting, or you spend time with Andy Reid or somebody else, there will be information gleaned that you may feel it's incumbent upon you to pass on to your team. And if you don't - like, say he has a Raiders game. I don't know if they're on FOX or whether Brady has them, I'm guessing he doesn't because of the obvious conflict. But it's just too tangled. And as Florio has often said, ‘pick a lane.’ You should pick a lane.”
It’s a nice line from Curran/Florio. But at the moment, it appears Brady doesn’t actually have to pick anything other than which of his seven Super Bowl rings he’s going to pair with his vintage Raiders jacket.
He can have his cake (or whatever it is Tom Brady eats) and eat it, too.
Raiders head coach Pete Carroll was asked postgame about ESPN’s report of Brady’s multiple meetings a week with Kelly.
“That's not accurate,” said Carroll. “We have conversations. I talk to Tom, Chip talks to Tom regularly. I mean, we have a tremendous asset. And so - you know, we all get along well, and we respect each other. And so we just talk about life and football and whatever comes, and he has great insight. So we're lucky to have him as an owner.”
Carroll says “that’s not accurate,” but then immediately says Brady talks to Kelly “regularly.” That half-hearted denial plus the ESPN reports tell me this smoke is accompanied by a fire.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.