Tom Brady is prepping for his third season as the lead analyst for the NFL on Fox. And in spite of all of his other interests, jobs, and sponsorship deals, he maintains that he is in it for the long haul.
Ever since Brady signed his 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox, there has been skepticism over just how committed he is to the broadcast profession. Of course, the headline deal is his part-ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders, which has reportedly kept him very involved in the franchise’s day-to-day operations.
Brady has also been involved with a number of side projects, whether that’s playing flag football, investing in an English soccer team, sponsoring almost everything under the sun, or his bizarre feud with WWE superstar Logan Paul that doesn’t make any sense to anyone.
But through it all, Brady remains with the NFL on Fox. And despite questions about his myriad of activities or potential conflicts of interest, he brushed it all off under the general umbrella of “clickbait.”
In a feature by Richard Deitsch and Austin Karp at Sports Business Journal on the NFL on Fox, Brady says he is unimpressed with critics and skeptics and expects to fulfill his 10-year contract.
“It’s clickbait for people, and it’s something that people have no idea what they’re really glomming onto. They just put it out there in the world and see what sticks. So to me, I just focus on what I need to do to be prepared. That’s what I did as a player, and I go out there every week as a broadcaster and try to do the same thing,” Brady said.
“I have a lot to prove to myself, to my teammates. I have a lot to prove to the executives. I want to go earn it, and I don’t want anything given to me. I hope they’ll have me through the end of this contract. I love getting to enjoy the game. I love watching good football. There’s such great camaraderie and chemistry we all have together. We have seminars. We have off-site retreats. We have text threads with all of us. It feels like a big family in so many ways, and I was not really expecting that when I decided to take the job.”
Some of the conflict-of-interest concerns are very real. But Tom Brady probably has a point that the restrictions placed on him regarding meetings and interviews with team personnel didn’t affect his NFL on Fox performances at all. The same will probably apply to Troy Aikman this year given his work consulting with the Miami Dolphins. Naturally, the conversation might change if and when the Dolphins or Raiders get good enough to be in the conversation for nationally televised games on ESPN or Fox, but neither franchise is there at the moment.
And in full fairness to Brady, he greatly improved as a broadcaster in year two of his analyst job, showing he could effectively balance his outside interests and responsibilities away from Fox. And he has consistently credited his NFL on Fox colleagues with helping him to do so in what has been a true team effort.
But lumping all the questions and skepticism about his work as “clickbait” may be a bit too convenient.
It’s great that Tom Brady has improved and begun to earn his massive Fox contract, and fans and Fox teammates alike are recognizing the strides he’s made as a broadcaster. But it’s also worth maintaining a watchful eye over his career as it moves forward.
A part-owner calling NFL games still isn’t normal. And fans should recognize the potential conflicts, whether it’s Brady, Aikman, or anyone else who wants to have one foot in the television world and one foot in an NFL front office.
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