Tom Brady’s mere sit-in in the Raiders’ coaching booth as a minority owner made plenty of headlines this past week. Analysts are now adamant that the former QB needs to pick a lane, either stick with his NFL on Fox gig or ride with the Silver and Black.
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The worry is that Brady could pick up on other teams’ playbooks during production meetings as a Fox commentator and feed that intel back to the Raiders coaches, a clear conflict of interest. Shannon Sharpe seems to be riding that same wave.
The Raiders are set to host the Bears in Week 4, by the way, but the newly appointed head coach Ben Johnson isn’t losing sleep over the so-called conflict Brady brings to the table. He said that whatever he shares in a production meeting with Brady wouldn’t exactly be top-secret, since most things can be seen by opposing teams (and anyone) once the game tape is out anyway. Still, analysts like Shannon Sharpe aren’t budging.
On the latest episode of Nightcap, while breaking down the Brady controversy, Sharpe argued that the owner-commentator role is a clear conflict of interest. His co-host, Chad Johnson, didn’t see it that way, saying that unless Brady is actually lining up under center, it doesn’t really matter. Having Brady in the booth won’t give any advantage whatsoever, Ocho asserted.
But Unc wasn’t buyin’ what Ocho was sellin’. He believes production meetings matter, and that’s why teams have them, and having someone like Brady in the room gives away info, crucial info at that. While Johnson pushed back, Sharpe said even small edges count. He pointed to scandals like Spygate, saying those gave advantages too, and so does this.
“If (watching film) is all that matters, why did they Spygate? If it didn’t matter, you [can just] watch film, so why did they do that?” Sharpe asked.
Sharpe added that the Brady situation is a “slippery slope” and it could get much worse. Johnson kept his guard up, insisting that’s not the case since Brady is just in the coaches’ booth, not on the field. But Sharpe argued again that even small things can give an advantage, pointing to the Michigan sign-stealing controversy and basically comparing the two situations.
“So in that case, Michigan, when they did what they did, it wasn’t a competitive advantage… You only cheat on a test, if you can. I ain’t even need to cheat. So why did you?” Sharpe continued.
It’s utterly ridiculous that Sharpe thinks teams, who are fully aware of Brady’s situation, are just going to hand him game plans every week. The NFL itself has clarified that teams decide what they want to share with the QB, and Brady is supposed to attend those production meetings via Zoom, not in person.
And with $37.5 million coming from his commentator gig, is he really risking it all to be a spy? Right now, the bigger concern should be whether Brady can sharpen his delivery and on-air charisma, since his rookie season as a broadcaster was quite bumpy, to say the least. With only limited info from teams, things could actually get worse for him.
And for people like Sharpe, who are just throwing around accusations and reading into things that aren’t there, the NFL might end up imposing stricter rules on the former QB for no real reason. And surely, the former TE himself doesn’t want that.
