Tom Brady's conflict of interest shows superstar privilege

ATLANTA – Mark Davis has finally closed the deal. Well, actually several offers.

The Las Vegas Raiders secured Tom Brady as a limited partner on Tuesday, with a unanimous vote from NFL owners ending a process that had lasted nearly a year and a half. The team also completed a trade that sent disgruntled three-time All-Pro receiver Davante Adams to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick, ending nearly a month-long drama.

“We traded Davante Adams for Tom Brady and a third-round draft pick,” Davis gushed to reporters in the lobby of a Buckhead hotel after the NFL owners concluded their fall meeting.

He could afford to be so cheerful now that previous attempts to get approval for an ownership interest in TB12 were rebuffed by the league's finance committee. Now Davis can exhale too. The only player in NFL history to win seven Super Bowls, a mega-celebrity whose notoriety is bolstered by his role as an analyst for the No. 1 team on Fox Sports, is now a Raider.

According to CNBC, Brady and his partner, Knighthead Capital Management founder Tom Wagner, invested around $220 million for a 10% stake. According to a report from CNBC, Hall of Fame defenseman Richard Seymour also acquired a stake of less than 1%.

“Although Tom cannot play, he can help us select a quarterback in the future and possibly coach him as well,” Davis said. “So it’s a huge benefit to the organization.”

Advantage, Raiders. Essentially. And that includes the optics of a conflict of interest that contradicts the popular league that promotes fair competition.

Brady can help choose who? Who to train?

Although details remain to be finalized, Brady will play an active role in the Raiders' football operations. He is no one's passive investor. And now he is the more active broadcaster who owns part of a team.

Early in the trial, some of the criticism targeted Brady's television appearance and how it would give him behind-the-scenes access to teams routinely granted to network broadcast crews. To address the concerns, the league worked out a compromise — “Tom Brady Rules,” if you will — that restricts the quarterback like no other broadcaster.

Brady is not allowed to attend practice or even the production meetings the networks hold with teams each week, which include in-depth interviews with coaches and key players, an essential part of pregame preparation.

Davis takes it to the point where he might object if the shoe were on the other foot.

“I would say if a Chiefs owner wanted to come over and interview my head coach and quarterback, I probably wouldn't want them to do that either,” he said. “We’re paranoid, that’s who we are at the Raiders. So I understand what people were worried about.

“I know the coaches and quarterbacks want to talk to him. You won't tell him the whole story and everything. They don't tell you (the reporters) the whole story when they talk. They tell you what they want the other team to hear, and then it’s up to you to figure out what they actually want to say.”

Apparently, given media access restrictions, other NFL owners have made peace with the connection between Brady's role on Fox and his involvement with the Raiders.

“It's a new circumstance, so you're working on those things,” Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke told USA TODAY Sports. “Whether it's perfect or not, I guess you'll have to wait and see. But in my opinion the guy always behaved in an exemplary manner. So if you ever had a candidate for ownership who could do that, he would be the guy who could do it.”

While Brady cannot participate in production meetings or training sessions (and he is prohibited from publicly criticizing officials or other teams), nothing prevents him from drawing on his own network of resources and reaching out to executives, players, coaches or other employees.

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, would take a call from Brady. Within six weeks, Brady was assigned as an analyst for four Cowboys games.

“He didn’t call, but I saw him,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports. “Maybe I’ll see him before the game. But I feel very comfortable with him when I talk about football. He's seen enough of us to know where the holes are. He is qualified to do this. And I like his style.”

Knowing Jones and his track record dealing with the media, he wouldn't have minded if there were no restrictions on Brady.

“I'm much more tolerant of the kind of information you can get before a game and how that affects the game itself,” Jones said. “Surely a man with his experience knows when he has crossed the line.”

It's worth noting that Jones was the first owner to allow ESPN cameras in the draft war room in 1992 – although that might have driven coach Jimmy Johnson crazy.

“Well, you had to trust that guys were going to go in there and hear and see things, that shouldn't be done,” Jones said. “And I’ve never been disappointed to have those cameras there.”

On the other hand, the debate about conflicts of interest in this equation is probably only superficial. Given that we're talking about the big business of the NFL, the problems so far have likely had a lot more to do with money than Brady's access to the media. Davis declined to discuss the financial aspects of the agreement, citing confidentiality agreements. But with the Raiders ranked by Forbes magazine as the NFL's seventh-most valuable franchise, worth $6.7 billion in 2024, the question arose as to whether the amount Brady had to pay for his share was commensurate with the value of the franchise Franchise corresponded appropriately.

Last spring, an NFL owner spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because the purchase process was still underway and described Brady's deal as a “Pretty Boy discount.”

That discount now appears to be even greater than it would have been when Brady first struck a deal with Davis, considering the value of the franchise since the Raiders moved from Oakland in 2020 to that of the taxpayer Funded Allegiant Stadium has steadily increased.

In any case, after the deals were approved by the Finance Committee (chaired by Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt), the league's other owners approved the assignments for Brady, Wagner and Seymour by a vote of 32-0.

For Davis, he finally has a coveted partner on his side – and all the benefits that come with listing TB12 as an ownership partner.

About 4½ years ago, Davis tried to sign Brady as a free agent. Brady chose the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won another Super Bowl. Davis stayed in touch with Brady's agent, Don Yee, and communicated his interest in one day having him join the organization.

“So then the seeds were planted and it came to fruition,” Davis said.

This with a man who was once considered an arch-villain. Brady's first Super Bowl appearance with the New England Patriots was boosted by a win against the Raiders in an AFC divisional playoff game in the snow of Foxborough when an apparent fumble due to the infamous “tuck rule” led to the play , in which the game-winning field goal was undone on immediate replay.

“Tom is someone I didn’t particularly like for many years,” Davis joked. “But we have been through situations like this before and in reality it is the people who make the decisions (who can be held responsible), not the people who play. He admitted it was a fumble. So those are important aspects of the situation.”

Which led to Brady teaming up with Davis to pursue a different kind of super mission.

Tom Brady's conflict of interest shows superstar privilege

ByVanessa

By Vanessa

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