Opinion: Tom Brady’s conflict of interest reflects superstar privilege in NFL

ATLANTA – Mark Davis finally got the deal done. Well, actually, multiple deals. 

The Las Vegas Raiders secured Tom Brady as a limited partner on Tuesday, with a unanimous vote from NFL owners that ended a process that took nearly 1 ½ years. The team also struck a trade that sent disgruntled three-time All-Pro receiver Davante Adams to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick, squashing the drama that has gone on for nearly a month. 

“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 NFL owners wrapped up their fall meeting. 

He could afford to be so jovial now after previous attempts to get TB12 approved for an ownership stake 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 high profile is bolstered by his role as analyst for the No. 1 team at Fox Sports, is a Raider now. 

According to CNBC, Brady and his partner, Knighthead Capital Management founder Tom Wagner, invested about $220 million for a 10% stake. Hall of Fame defensive lineman Richard Seymour also purchased a stake of less than 1%, CNBC reported. 

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“Although Tom can’t play, he can help us select a quarterback in the future and potentially train him as well,” Davis said. “So, it’s a huge benefit for the organization.” 

Advantage, Raiders. In a major way. And this includes the optics of a conflict of interest that flies in the face of the popular league that touts fair competition. 

Brady can help select who? Train who? 

Although specifics have yet to be firmed up, Brady will have an active role in the football operations of the Raiders. He is nobody’s passive investor. And now he’s the rather active broadcaster who owns a piece of a team. 

Earlier in the process, some of the pushback struck at Brady’s television gig, and how it would allow him behind-the-scenes access to teams routinely granted to the network broadcast teams. To alleviate the concern, the league crafted a compromise – “Tom Brady Rules,” if you will – that restricts the quarterback like no other broadcaster. 

Brady is not allowed to attend practices or even the production meetings the networks conduct each week with teams that include extensive interviews with coaches and key players, which is an essential part of pre-game preparation. 

Davis gets it to the point that he might object if the shoe were on the other foot. 

“I would say that if an owner of the Chiefs wanted to come in and interview my head coach and quarterback, I probably wouldn’t want him to do it, either,” he said. “We’re paranoid, that’s what we are in the Raiders. So, I understand what people were concerned about. 

“I do know the coaches and the quarterbacks want to talk to him. They’re not going to give him the full story and everything. They’re not giving you guys (the reporters) the full story when they’re talking. They’re telling you guys what they want the other team to hear, then it’s up to you guys to discover what they’re actually trying to say.” 

Apparently, with restrictions for the media access in place, other NFL owners have found peace with the mesh between Brady’s role at Fox and his Raiders involvement. 

“It’s a new circumstance, so you work at these things,” Stan Kroenke, the Los Angeles Rams owner, told USA TODAY Sports. “So, whether it’s perfect or not perfect, I guess you wait and see. But the guy has always handled himself in an exemplary way, in my view. So, if you ever had a candidate for ownership that can do that, then he would be the guy that could pull it off.” 

While Brady can’t go to production meetings or practices (and is prohibited from publicly criticizing officials or other teams), there’s nothing preventing him from tapping into his own network of resources and reaching out to executives, players, coaches or other staff. 

Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner, would take a call from Brady. Through six weeks, Brady has been assigned as an analyst for four Cowboys games. 

“He hasn’t called, but I’ve seen him,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports. “I might see him in pregame. But I’m very comfortable with him, talking about football. He’s seen enough of us that he’s very aware of where the holes are. He’s qualified to do that. And I like his style.” 

Knowing Jones, and his track record for embracing the media, he wouldn’t have objected if Brady didn’t have any restrictions. 

“I have a lot more tolerance for the kind of information that you can get before a game and how that impacts that very game,” said Jones. “Certainly, a guy with his experience knows when he’s crossed the line.” 

Jones, it should be noted, in 1992 became the first owner to allow ESPN cameras in the draft war room – although it might have driven coach Jimmy Johnson crazy.  

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

Then again, the conflict-of-interest debate is probably just surface stuff in this equation. Given that we’re talking about the big business of the NFL, the previous snags likely had much more to do with money than with Brady’s media access. Davis wouldn’t discuss financial components of the arrangement, citing non-disclosure agreements. Yet with the Raiders ranked by Forbes magazine as the NFL’s seventh-most valuable franchise, with a valuation of $6.7 billion in 2024, there were questions about whether the amount that Brady was pegged to pay for his percentage properly equated to the franchise’s value. 

Last spring, an NFL owner, speaking to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the purchase process was still ongoing, described Brady’s deal as a “pretty boy discount.” 

That discount might seem even larger now than it would have been when Brady initially struck an agreement with Davis, given how the franchise’s value has steadily escalated since the Raiders moved from Oakland in 2020 and moved into the taxpayer-supported Allegiant Stadium. 

In any event, after the deals cleared the finance committee (chaired by Clark Hunt, the Kansas City Chiefs owner), the other league owners approved the stakes for Brady, Wagner and Seymour by a 32-0 vote. 

For Davis, he finally has a coveted partner in the fold – and all the gravitas that comes with having TB12 listed as an ownership partner. 

About 4 ½ years ago, Davis tried signing Brady as a free agent. Brady picked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won another Super Bowl. Davis stayed in touch with Brady’s agent, Don Yee, and let him know of his interest to someday bring him into the organization. 

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

This, with a man who was once considered an arch-villain. Brady’s first Super Bowl drive with the New England Patriots was aided by the victory against the Raiders in an AFC divisional playoff game in the snow at Foxborough when an apparent fumble was reversed on instant replay because of the infamous “Tuck Rule” that led to the game-winning field goal. 

“Tom is somebody that for many years I didn’t like very much,” Davis joked. “But we’ve been through those situations before and really, it’s the people that make the calls (to be blamed), not the people who are playing. He did admit it was a fumble. So, those are important aspects of the situation.” 

Which has led to Brady teaming with Davis to chase another type of Super mission.