The conflict of interest has been there from the jump. When Tom Brady agreed to become both Fox's lead NFL analyst and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, plenty wondered how long it would take before things got messy.
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Monday night provided the answer.
ESPN cameras caught Brady in the Raiders' coaching box during the game, wearing a headset and studying a tablet. He even seemed to shrink out of sight once he realized he was on air.
The optics were hard to ignore: the league's most high-profile broadcaster doubling as an owner with potential access to competitive information.
As written by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Raiders coach Pete Carroll was asked Tuesday about the controversy. Carroll defended Brady, saying the seven-time Super Bowl champion has been careful about boundaries.
"I think Tom's really tried to honor that really strictly and with all respect to the situation of concerns like you're talking about," Carroll told reporters. "He has not been — he is not planning games with us. He is not talking to us about anything other than our conversations that we have that are really... random.
'They're not set up, they're not structured in any way. And he knows. He's very respectful of what he does otherwise."
Still, as Florio noted, that's the issue. Brady shouldn't have to "walk a tightrope." Even if he's not actively game-planning, the mere appearance of impropriety exists — an NFL owner sitting in production meetings, roaming sidelines, and observing opponents in real time.
Brady is expected to be back on the call for Fox in Week 10 (Broncos) and Week 11 (Cowboys). But until the league steps in, the dual role might continue to raise eyebrows.
