Tom Brady doth protest too much

This originally appeared in Thursday’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here and be the first to know everything you need to know about the sports media world.

Tom Brady finally responded to the charges that his dual roles as a Fox NFL broadcaster and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders create the potential for conflicts of interest. And boy was it a doozy.

“I love football,” Brady wrote in his Wednesday morning newsletter. “At its core, it is a game of principles. And with all the success it has given me, I feel I have a moral and ethical duty to the sport; which is why the point where my roles in it intersect is not actually a point of conflict, despite what the paranoid and distrustful might believe.

“When you live through uncertain and untrusting times like we are today, it is very easy to watch a person’s passions and profession intersect, and to believe you’re looking at some sort of dilemma. Because when you’re blinded by distrust, it’s hard to see anything other than self-interest.

“…People who are like that, particularly to a chronic, pathological degree, are telling on themselves,” Brady continued of his critics. “They’re showing you their worldview and how they operate. They’re admitting that they can only conceive of interests that are selfish; that they cannot imagine a person doing their job for reasons that are greater than themselves.”

As one of the many people who have questioned Brady’s ethical dilemma, including in this newsletter last week, I feel a duty to offer a response.

I would say, much like my colleague Brandon Contes wrote Wednesday morning, the burden of proof is on Brady, not us.

It is entirely fair to wonder if a person with a vested, financial interest in the success of one team might use his unfettered access to every other team to improve his team’s chances in some way, however small or even subconsciously.

And that’s especially true when we’re talking about someone who has shown themselves to be a ruthless competitor who was once at the center of a cheating scandal and recently showed us they’re willing to look the other way on ethical and moral concerns for personal gain.

Brady’s status as the NFL golden boy puts the onus on him, fairly or not, to prove to us he’s worthy of being in a position few, if any, other people would be allowed to have. And if that makes him uncomfortable, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

It’s not unlike when Brady agreed to be roasted on Netflix. By all accounts, he expected to be able to handle the jokes. Instead, he ended up having to protect his billionaire buddy, and ultimately said he regretted that his kids witnessed it. He had an expectation, even then, that certain rules would apply to him. They did not.

Like many people in his position these days, he wants to be able to do as he pleases without facing any critique, questions, or pushback.

Things don’t work like that, even if you’re Tom Brady.