The conflict of interest existed from the moment Tom Brady became both a Fox broadcaster and a minority owner of the Raiders. It finally became a focal point on Monday night, when ESPN cameras showed Brady in the coaches’ box, wearing a headset and monitoring a tablet (and then trying to shrink out of sight once he realized he was on camera).
On Tuesday, coach Pete Carroll was asked about the “firestorm” that emerged in the aftermath of the game, with fans and media realizing that Brady’s job with Fox allows him to help the Raiders, both as to upcoming opponents and as to potential future employee acquisitions or coaching/front-office hires.
“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. “And I think he’s been really good. 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, and he’s of the opinion that, you know, he doesn’t want to be that kind of a factor, and so he’s not.”
But Brady shouldn’t have to try to walk a tightrope. That’s the problem with a conflict of interest. The person who has it ultimately has to strike a balance, at times ignoring one obligation in the name of advancing the other.
It’s not about whether Brady has engaged in impropriety. It’s about the potential for it. The appearance of it. He’s operating on the honor system, with no oversight or regulation.
And even if he’s not actively involved in week-by-week game-planning, he’s clearly involved in any games that he can personally attend. He’ll surely be there again, in Week 10 on Thursday night at Denver and in Week 11 on Monday night against the Cowboys.
Some have said “more power to him” or words to that effect. If the NFL allows Brady to secure an advantage for the Raiders based on information gathered about other teams while working games for Fox, he should. This obscures the fact that Brady shouldn’t want to be in that position. He should know that he can’t be the best broadcaster he can be and also the best owner he can be.
But, hey, when in post-standards America, do as the post-standards Americans do.
It all comes back to the league. The NFL allowed this situation to exist. It will continue to do so until enough owners muster the will to rise up and demand change.
It’s their league, not the Commissioner’s and not Brady’s. If some of the richest and most powerful people in the country are willing to tolerate a situation that can hurt them individually — and that can undermine the integrity of the game generally — that’s their prerogative.
