Tom Brady has come under scrutiny for his dual roles as Fox's top NFL color commentator and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, for which he reportedly serves as a key advisor to principle owner Mark Davis.
Brady is in his first year of calling games for Fox alongside Kevin Burkhardt, and he will make his Super Bowl debut—at least, behind the microphone—at Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
At the same time, he reportedly has Davis's ear in remaking the Raiders, including the team's looming coaching and general manager hires.
While Brady has faced plenty of criticism for what some have dubbed is a conflict of interest, Fox Sports president of programming and production Brad Zager doesn't share those concerns at all. Speaking to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, he pointedly dismissed the idea that Brady can't or shouldn't do both jobs.
“To me, the questioning of someone’s integrity to say there is a conflict of interest is ridiculous and that’s a shame,” Zager said. “Is there a conflict of interest Monday night when Kirk Herbstreit calls Ohio State in the national championship game? Was there a conflict of interest of Joe Davis calling the (Los Angeles) Dodgers in the World Series?
“For somebody to say there’s a conflict of interest in that Tom Brady can’t go in a booth and call a (Detroit) Lions game because the possibility of a Raiders coaching search could include, maybe people from Detroit, maybe from (the) Washington (Commanders), maybe from any team—since they haven’t hired anyone yet—is questioning his integrity. It’s questioning his professionalism. I just don’t understand it on any level.”
Of course, the examples he gives are far different situations from the one Brady finds himself in. Herbstreit is pretty open about his support of his alma mater, and Fox's Davis calls Dodgers games as his day job, but neither has the same sort of direct financial incentive for their teams to do well as Brady does with Las Vegas.
In any case, it doesn't appear that the arrangement is changing anytime soon. Despite persistent speculation that Brady will step away from broadcasting, his agent Don Yee recently said that the legendary quarterback intends to fulfill the entirety of his 10-year, $375 million deal.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fox Exec Blasts Idea That Tom Brady's Raiders Role Presents Conflict of Interest.
