He grew used to doing it as a player during his 23-year career, but Tom Brady has continued to dominate conversations around the NFL even after retiring. It was a given that Brady would stick around football once he hung up his cleats, but not even he could have imagined controversies brewing due to his post-playing career moves.
When Brady took over as Fox Sports‘ lead color commentator, it seemed like a natural fit. Despite some first-year hiccups, Brady has done a good job calling big games to this point. Where it all got questionable was the NFL allowing Brady to become a part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. That set up conspiracy theories and an overall distaste for the owner of a team to potentially have inside information on other teams, due to his in-person production meetings with coaches as a broadcaster.
This was all amplified on Monday Night Football, when Brady was spotted in the Raiders’ coaching booth, followed by a report that he meets with Las Vegas offensive coordinator Chip Kelly frequently. The whole situation has brought up uncomfortable questions once again. The NFL has continually claimed that Brady isn’t doing anything wrong.
Is Tom Brady’s Raiders situation getting blown out of proportion?
And although certain fans might be outraged by the whole thing, there are plenty of level-headed analysts who believe it’s getting blown out of proportion. Bill Simmons and Mina Kimes recently delved into the topic on a podcast, and they both agreed that there simply isn’t much of an advantage to Brady meeting with other teams’ coaches behind the scenes.
- Bill Simmons: “You get to meet the coach and talk about the players. It’s a little overrated. It’s not like they’re like, ‘here’s our gameplan!’ They might tell you one thing. Other than that, they’re not giving you game strategy.”
- Mina Kimes: “I am a little surprised by how upset people are about the competitive integrity side of it. I don’t really see the edge… I don’t think the actual substance of it is that bad.”
This certainly won’t be the last time we hear about the situation, but it might just be getting out of hand for Brady, the Raiders and the NFL.
Read the full article here
