The bar, where NFL team owners speak publicly, is located just about floor level. Unless you say something amazingly stupid, ignorant, or offensive, everyone will call you “Mr.” And Jockey for your affection.
So, by the standards of his new colleagues, new Las Vegas Raiders owner Tom Brady did a good job of making his first announcement since winning approval to buy into the league’s highest tier. But by the standards of the announcer profession and the expectations of Fox viewers, well… Brady has a lot of work to do to satisfactorily juggle these two roles.
Brady officially became the Raiders’ minority owner earlier this week, a role that carries significant implications for his job Sunday announcing Fox’s marquee game. Among the restrictions on Brady as owner are that he cannot criticize referees, criticize other teams, and sit in on pregame production meetings with other teams.
All of these restrictions make a lot of sense for Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, for example. But for a player who is being paid $375 million over the next 10 years to broadcast some of the season’s most important games, including the Super Bowl, these restrictions certainly don’t make Brady as honest as he should be. It seems like it would hinder the performance. And as fans hope, he will.
This kind of ownership and broadcast crossover is not unprecedented in the sports world. In NASCAR, for example, team owners often serve as race broadcasters, with little or no visibility of their relationship on the air. But NASCAR is a more entertaining sport than the NFL…and like other sports, the coverage is much smaller than the NFL.
Broadcasters don’t have to burn everything down. This kind of Skip Bayless/Stephen A. Smith flamethrower is more performance than analysis, and fans can see through it. But broadcasters should be given the freedom to speak honestly and authoritatively about touchy topics like underperforming players, questionable coaching decisions, missed or misapplied penalties.
That alternative is exactly what we got from Brady Sunday afternoon during FOX’s Chiefs vs. 49ers broadcast. It was a lively, upbeat broadcast, filled with praise and hoopla, and the NFL’s writers couldn’t have crafted it any better.
Granted, if you’re looking for two teams to criticize, you can’t start with two-time Super Bowl champion Kansas City and playoff regular San Francisco. Both of these teams are far from February’s Super Bowl-level strength, but they are still two of the best-run organizations in football.
And, oh, Brady was crazy about the praise. He praised Patrick Mahomes’ “sneaky creativity.” He showered his love on Nick Bosa’s “incredible Super Bowl performance.” He gushed about the “really good, creative schemes by Coach (Andy) Reid, who is one of the most unique play-callers in the league. Just a great coach.” Sometimes it gives players flowers, other times it loads them with an entire field of Amsterdam worth of tulips.
Late in the first quarter, Kansas City’s Nick Bolton was flagged for suspected pass interference. Brock Purdy’s pass appeared to go wide over George Kittle’s head. But other than the clichéd “tight call” line, Brady didn’t criticize penalties, and as a quarterback, he loves players who go their way even when they know it’s wrong. Neither did he say so. Instead, he simply asked Fox’s in-house officiating analyst Mike Pereira, “I don’t know, Mike, what do you think?”
Brady has several moments, including when he called Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo “the bane of my existence” and referenced their past history on the opposite sideline. did. But such lines sounded like jokes, off-season banquet-level banter, not honest criticism.
Look, you’ll soon see how honest Brady is. His miserable old team, the New England Patriots, will play the New York Jets next weekend. Analyzing that mess would push Brady beyond his limits. Unfortunately it’s on CBS, but it’s probably worth a listen.
The frustrating part of this new move is that Brady is legitimately growing as an analyst each week. His voice doesn’t have the commanding bass of John Madden, the distinctive regional accent of Cris Collinsworth, or the gruff exuberance of Tony Romo. But he makes up for it each week by bringing more audible enthusiasm and a humanity that wasn’t present when he was a quarterback. When Brandon Aiyuk went down with a gruesome foot injury late in the first half, Brady could be heard gasping in sympathy. It’s a small thing, but it helps connect broadcasters and viewers.
Brady must be excited about this new arrangement, which allows him to enter the NFL’s upper echelons while remaining in the public eye. And the league itself must be happy. Its most famous alum has now become its de facto public relations machine.
But Fox can’t be happy that its star station is operating without a full toolbox at its disposal. And fans will miss some truly honest commentary from one of the most connected players in NFL history. Just like he did as a player, Brady will only show us what he wants us to see.
