The bar for publicly speaking NFL team owners is set at ground level. As long as you don’t say anything shockingly stupid, ignorant, or offensive, everyone will continue to call you “Mr.” and hockey for your love.
So by the standards of his new colleagues, new Las Vegas Raiders owner Tom Brady did very well in his first announcing job since getting the nod to enter the league’s top echelon. However, by the standards of the broadcasting profession and the expectations of Fox viewers, well…Brady has his work cut out for him to convincingly juggle these two roles.
Brady officially became a minority owner of the Raiders earlier this week, a role that has significant implications for his Sunday job calling big games for Fox. Among the restrictions Brady has as owner: He can’t criticize referees, he can’t criticize other organizations and cannot attend pre-game production meetings with other organizations.
All of these restrictions make a lot of sense to, say, Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft. But for a guy who will be paid $375 million over the next 10 years to broadcast some of the biggest games of the season, including the Super Bowl, these restrictions seem to prevent Brady from being as honest as he should be. and how fans should expect it to be.
This type of crossover between ownership and streaming is unprecedented in sports; In NASCAR, for example, team owners have often acted as race announcers, with little or no acknowledgment of their on-air relationship. But NASCAR is a friendlier sport than the NFL…and, like any other sport, it has a much smaller broadcast reach than the NFL.
A station doesn’t have to burn everything; That kind of Skip Bayless/Stephen A. Smith flamethrowing involves less analysis and more performance, and fans can see it. But a broadcaster should have the freedom to speak with honesty and authority about sensitive topics: an underperforming player, a dubious coach’s decision, a missed or misapplied penalty.
The alternative is exactly what we got from Brady on Sunday afternoon during Fox’s Chiefs-49ers broadcast: a lively, upbeat broadcast so full of praise and rah-rah that the NFL’s own writers couldn’t have crafted it better.
Of course, if you’re looking for two teams to criticize, you wouldn’t exactly start with two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City and perpetual playoff contender San Francisco. These two teams are a long way from their Super Bowl-level strength in February, but they are still two of the best-run organizations in football.
And oh, Brady got a lot of praise. He praised the “sneaky creativity” of Patrick Mahomes. He showered love on Nick Bosa’s “incredible performance at the Super Bowl.” He praised Coach (Andy) Reid’s “really good creative scheme, one of the most unique play-callers in the league… just a tremendous coach.” You have to give flowers to the players and then fill an entire field with tulips in Amsterdam.
Late in the first quarter, Kansas City’s Nick Bolton was flagged for a highly suspicious pass interference call; Brock Purdy’s pass appeared to go well over George Kittle’s head. But aside from a vanilla “strict call” line, Brady didn’t criticize the punishment, or even point out that as a quarterback, he loved those who followed his path even when he knew they were wrong. Instead, he simply passed it off to Mike Pereira, Fox’s in-house referee analyst, with a quick “I don’t know, Mike, what do you think?”
Brady had some moments, like when he called Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo “the bane of my existence,” referencing his past history on opposing sides. But lines like that came off as tongue-in-cheek, off-season banquet-level banter, not honest criticism.
Oh my goodness, we could find out very quickly just how honest Brady can be. His miserable old team, the New England Patriots, will play the New York Jets next weekend. Analyzing that disaster would stretch the limits of Brady’s restrictions. Unfortunately, it airs on CBS, but it would be something worth listening to, right?
The frustrating thing about this new dynamic is that Brady legitimately gets better every week as an analyst. His voice doesn’t have the commanding bass of John Madden, the distinctive regional accent of Cris Collinsworth, or the husky enthusiasm of Tony Romo. But he’s making up for it by bringing more audible enthusiasm each week, as well as a humanity that we weren’t quite sure existed when he was a quarterback. When Brandon Aiyuk suffered a serious leg injury late in the first half, Brady audibly gasped in sympathy. It’s a small thing, but it helps connect the broadcaster with the viewer.
Brady has to be delighted with this new deal, which will keep him in the public eye while also allowing him to enter a higher level of the NFL hierarchy. And the league itself must be satisfied; his most famous student is now a de facto public relations machine.
But Fox can’t be happy that its flagship broadcaster is operating without a full toolbox at its disposal. And fans will miss what could have been truly honest comments from one of the most connected players in NFL history. As he did when he was a player, Brady will let us see only what he wants us to see.
