The public seems to have turned on the idea that Tom Brady should be allowed to own an NFL team while he calls football games for Fox. Brady was shown in the Raiders coaching box on Monday night wearing a headset hours after he announced he would be playing flag football in Saudi Arabia and Peter Schrager shared a story about how involved Brady is on a weekly basis. Something about all that made his conflict of interest too much to ignore anymore.
On Get Up this morning Domonique Foxworth wondered why any team would talk to Brady when they might have Las Vegas on their schedule. Then on First Take Marcus Spears called out the NFL for allowing this at all, saying it questions the integrity of the league.
Marcus Spears on Tom Brady's dual roles with Fox and the Raiders: "It's abhorrent for me for his job. I love it for his team... this should not happen with him being a commentator of NFL football games. It actually questions the integrity of the NFL." pic.twitter.com/o7S55J1lul
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"I hate it," said Spears. "It's abhorrent for me, for his job. I love it for his team. You're a five percent owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Sit wherever the hell you wanna sit at the game. If you wanna be on the sideline with a headset on go be on the sideline with a headset on. This should not happen with him being a commentator of NFL football games. It actually questions the integrity of the NFL."
Chris Canty jumped in to point out that Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon does stand on the sideline with a headset on. Irsay-Gordon went viral for doing just that this weekend, but she's not calling games.
"Now teams have to be smart and not divulge information when he's on a call," warned Spears. "Because at some point the Raiders are gonna play the teams that he's sitting there on these meetings. And I don't know if anybody knows, and you know this, but there's information shared when you have these pre-production meetings for games. There's plans that coaches have. There's guys that they tell you to be on the lookout for for how we'll use them. So I hate it from that standpoint. Which is why the league tried to implement things prior to this becoming an issue with Tom Brady being part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders."
Spears then asked whether anyone would have a problem with Jerry Jones having access to other teams through pre-production meetings.
The NFL is doing its best to just let Brady do whatever he wants, but now people are questioning whether they should. For now at least.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Marcus Spears: Tom Brady’s Ownership and Broadcast Roles Questions Integrity of NFL.
