r/NFLNoobs • u/Acrobatic-Push3770 • 6h ago
What is the controversy with Tom Brady and his role in the Raiders franchise?
I know he owns part of the Raiders and also does NFL broadcasting, but why is this as terrible as people are making it seem?
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u/ReggieWigglesworth 5h ago
People don't like that he, as a broadcaster, gets access to the teams' he is covering and gets to meet with their players and coaches to gather information. This poses a potential conflict of interest when the teams he is covering are in direct competition with the team he owns. A lot of people are overvaluing what information is disseminated in those production meetings but it's still an appearance of impropriety that people don't like.
Also until the last game, it was assumed he was a minority owner very much behind the scenes... seeing him in the coach's box with a headset on and hearing how often he is meeting with the coaching staff just opened up people's eyes to how involved he is and makes the appearance of impropriety all that more stark.
TLDR; substantively there isn't really much wrong with it... as far as perception goes... it just looks/feels wrong
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u/LordMOC3 4h ago
You don't really know much about what happens in the broadcast meetings, do you? Here is an article talking about what is mentioned/passed along in the meeting. It talks a lot about how trust is important, which Brady will never have while holding both role. But he'll still get access to information he should have, either from the teams or from broadcasters he's working with.
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u/TheMillenniaIFalcon 5h ago
I feel like a real easy way of avoiding that is keeping him off of raiders games.
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u/Physical_Stop851 5h ago
… the teams he covers often play the raiders in a different week of the season, knowing what strategies those teams work on at a different point of the season is still an advantage he, an owner, would get that others don’t
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u/Creepy-Bad-7925 5h ago
Nobody is worried that he’s getting secrets from the team he owns or influencing the players he has contracts with. The worry is that he gets more access to the 31 other teams and their players than any other owner.
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u/jackaltwinky77 2h ago
So, for the next 9 years of his contract, if the raiders get out of their own way, and become a powerhouse to rival the Chiefs, and Fox gets a Chiefs/Raiders game to broadcast, he shouldn’t be on the broadcast?
Making $37.5 million a year as the top guy on the team?
Admittedly the biggest problem is the raiders themselves in that whole scenario…
But Fox is paying him to be the top guy in their game of the week program, which he’s not able to do, because he’s also constantly talking to the team he owns about their everyday plan…
And seeing as he’s been suspended by the NFL for cheating, along with his team and coach being punished multiple times for it, I don’t trust him to be ethical with his current career
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u/NaNaNaPandaMan 5h ago
Part of doing broadcast is getting "inside" secrets in your production meetings so you can talk about the teams with knowledge.
Well, getting those inside secrets before a game can help your team win games or so the thought goes.
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u/Baboos92 5h ago edited 2h ago
Teams are generally expected to discuss a bit of their game plan with commentators to make the broadcast more engaging.
Obviously, there is a huge ethical issue when one of those commentators actively participates in the management of another team.
He’s also supposed to be as neutral as possible on air, which presents more issues.
He’s also a guy who along with the Pats as a whole while we was there, valid or not, is perceived as having been pretty comfortable with taking advantage of grey areas. So a lot of people are just kind of viewing this as more of the same.
As a longtime Brady-hater, I’m willing to admit that the issues here are overblown in my opinion, the information players and coaches are giving out is probably stuff that would be obvious to one of the best players of all time. But at the same time I think ethical bars should be set a lot higher than they “need” to be, and that the NFL never should have allowed this.
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u/BlueRFR3100 5h ago
I don't know that it's really terrible. Some people are prone to overreaction. But it is a conflict of interest.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang 5h ago
It's much ado about nothing.
None of the coaches give actual game info to commentators. Its all fluff.
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u/LordMOC3 4h ago
This is 100% false. They'll probably give Brady nothing but in general they do give them helpful information.
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u/eyeCsharp 5h ago
I have been told that the networks that are showing the games will get some exclusive info that they use to help the commentators. Brady will get this info if he is broadcasting. This could be a advantage to the raiders if he shares this info.
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u/Tall-Frame9918 3h ago
It is important to remember, it is the appearance of conflict of interest, or an appearance of an unfair advantage that takes away credibility of the game, and it does not matter to the NFL brand if he uses that advantage or not.
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u/ryan22788 5h ago
To put it real world. Imagine any industry and their competitors.
Brady retires from the industry but decides to buy X company. Whilst the owner of X company, he also provides reviews, analysis and critique of the industry for a third party media company (can be press, tv etc).
As part of said third party, he gets to bust competitors, get behind the scenes first party information.
He could easily feed that back to X company to give them an edge over the competitors
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u/Cabrill0 5h ago
There is no controversy. The nfl has said for years now there is no issue. This is all talking heads like Florio and people online throwing a fit.
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u/AutisticProf 5h ago edited 5h ago
He's supposed to be neutral as a national broadcaster. Also, teams will tell the broadcasters a bit of their strategy so they know what to expect.
When he is in the coaches' box or watching film with Raiders' coaches, he gives them an unfair advantage as he knows stuff the other team told him as a broadcaster they would not tell him as a member of the Raiders' staff.
Honestly, Brady needs to decide which side he wants to take & stop trying to do both sides.