“It’s Tom Brady, and that’s all you need to know.”

 Hear it here!

 

It’s been a couple of years since Tom Brady retired from his fabulous playing career, establishing himself as the best quarterback ever to play to this point.

But he remains front and center in the sporting public’s attention ranging from what his personal life looks like to what he’s doing in the world of football.

We’ll deal with the football side of things. Sorry to some of you.

We know he’s in his second season as the lead expert-analyst on Fox Sports NFL coverage having already worked a Super Bowl, something he knew well from his days as a player when he won seven of them.

We also know he is a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

As a broadcaster in his first year, he was a marked man from the start. After beating every team so many times and winning as much as he did, he inherited resentment from those who could finally find fault in anything he did and they didn’t hold back.

They didn’t care that beyond the achievements on the field, he was a confident, grateful, humble, and vastly intelligent human being. In fact, all of that might have added to their dislike, can I even use the word hate?

So, they criticized his work in the booth from game one and kept it coming.

At the same time, they elevated the man he replaced, Greg Olsen, who is a good man and a good broadcaster, to a godliness status. They claimed Fox made a mistake in making that move. The fact is, they did not.

Tom Brady endured the common first-year announcer adjustments and displayed countless instances of analysis that has been rarely heard.

Let me be forthcoming and say that I know him, have talked with him, and texted him.

But Tom Brady is not family to me, and I have absolutely no stake in his career.

But I saw the progress he made, including his Super Bowl performance, and have been fortunate to understand the man below the surface of simply working games in a booth.

The same adjustments he has made with getting his feet wet in a new venture, is the same all of us, including Greg Olsen has gone through.

Now, this season’s Great War chant is ‘Conflict of Interest’.

Because Brady is a part-owner of the Raiders, he cannot do justice to his role as a commentator. He is limited in his preparation insofar as to not being able to attend the practices of teams he is covering. Worse still are the charges his role gives the Raiders an edge because of what he learns from coaches and players in Zoom meetings.

My answer to all of that, based on a half-century of covering the NFL, including nearly a decade with Matt Millen on Fox’ #2 unit, is hogwash.

The conflict of interest accusers have never been a part of game preparation, have no idea what meetings with coaches and players are like, and what attending Friday and Saturday practices really mean.

They mean little to nothing. You can read that line again. It won’t change.

They are, in reality, a waste of time. There is no coach or player who walks into a room with a group of announcers and production people they largely don’t know, or don’t know well, and proceed to unveil the secrets of their game plan, true injury status of their players, or pinpoint weaknesses of their opponent.

It just doesn’t happen.

In essence they repeat the same stuff they gave their local media who question them every day. You get platitudes of the team they’re about to play, never reveal problems that exist within, and say the same things every week. They want to run the ball successfully, stop the run, not commit turnovers, create turnovers themselves, and when they get inside the red-zone (inside the opponents’ 20-yard line), score touchdowns instead of settling for field goals.

Wow.

Great revelations.

After hearing this stuff for decades, I would finally ask the head coach if this plan was any different a week ago. And he would chuckle.

Here’s a scoop. Tom Brady doesn’t need meetings to learn anything. All he has to do is look at tapes of games to learn how a team operates on both offense and defense, who stands out, and who is a liability. This is what he did for over two decades and we all know how that came out. Actually, the two quarterbacks and head coaches would like to meet with Brady himself to learn what he thinks.

In week three, he was seen in the Raiders’ offensive booth with a headset, possibly communicating with the offensive coordinator giving his opinion.

What could be more sinister, LOL. Imagine, here is Tom Brady helping his Raiders the best he can while he is preparing for a broadcast on Fox.

He looks at the same tape as any coach or player can and sees the same things.

Where are the secrets? Last Sunday, Brady was on the air for the Bears upset of the Cowboys. He saw the same things the Raiders’ coaches will see as they prepare for their game against the Bears this week.

Now, if a player or coach privately reveal inner workings to Brady, that’s their risk.

I know it’s not going to happen.

I read where Greg Olsen said there were some coaches who offered their entire game plan, and others who didn’t. If so, and I have to doubt Greg’s comment, it brings this major thought: Why would a coach offer anything in front of virtual strangers that might be passed on to the wrong folks.

I laughed when I read that Rex Ryan, former head coach of the Bills and Jets purposely gave the TV crew false info because he didn’t like them. Often giving them the exact opposite plan that he was going to use.

One time, years ago, an NFL head coach told our group covering his game who his starting quarterback would be, a surprise to his opponent. He asked that we would keep it confidential.

We said we would. But a member of the production team preparing the graphic lineups for the next day called his friend, who worked with ESPN, and it became public knowledge the night before. You can guess the coach’s reaction.

These days teams are paranoid. The injury situation they used to reveal are now game-time decisions. They tell you less and less.

That’s why I know, without question, that Tom Brady can serve the two masters. Fox, for his game broadcasts, and the Raiders for helping them win games.

There is no conflict of interest, just two different roles.

But it’s Tom Brady, and that’s all you need to know.