Whatever Tommy wants, Tommy gets.
Assuming that he truly wants to take the time to participate in weekly production meetings.
A year ago, the NFL addressed the obvious and blatant conflict of interest arising from Brady owning a piece of the Raiders and serving as a game broadcaster for Fox by creating a specific set of rules. Entering the second year of Brady’s tenure in the booth, the rules have been revised.
Via Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com, the league will now allow Brady to participate in production meetings.
Per the report, Brady is expected to still be barred from attending practices. The report does not address whether he will continue to be prevented from entering the facilities of other teams and/or the hotel of a team that is on the road for a given game.
Brady was allowed to participate in production meetings prior to Super Bowl LIX.
It’s no surprise that, in post-standards America, many would not see the problems arising from Brady’s mutual duties to the Raiders and to Fox/the NFL, or from his presumed desire to be both the absolute best owner and the absolute best broadcaster he can be.
There’s still a question lingering in some league circles as to whether he wants to put in the total time needed to fully and completely prepare for games. Last year, the Bills were willing to waive the prohibition on Brady participating in production meetings before a game against the Seahawks. The league declined.
From our story: “Maybe he doesn’t really want to go to practices or attend production meetings or talk on the phone to coaches and players in order to best prepare for games. That’s the conclusion that was reached by at least one person involved in efforts to get the league to waive the Tom Brady Broadcast Rules. It’s not that the league is keeping him down. It’s that Brady doesn’t want to put in the work, and that the restrictions provide him with a quick and easy excuse to avoid doing it.”
Allowing him to attend the production meeting doesn’t change much. He was permitted to make individual phone calls last year. (Whether he should be is a different issue.) The revision to the Brady Rules creates a structured, scheduled task each week that wasn’t there a year before.
This change will necessarily require him to put in perhaps more time than he did a year ago, regardless of whether he’d prefer not to.
We don’t know what he’d prefer to do, because no one ever says, “Man, I wish I didn’t have to work as much as they want me to.” Regardless, this year, he’ll be officially on duty not only for the games but also for the production meetings with the two teams before each and every game.
