As Tom Brady closed out a solid, one-gloved broadcast Sunday in Buffalo, his attention no doubt turned to—or was already leaning toward—the NFL draft. Buoyed by some swift administrative work that had Las Vegas’s two best players off the field, a lifeless Raiders club was roundly beaten by the Giants, a team that had not won on the road since Jan. 5, in a meaningless end-of-season game against the Eagles in Philadelphia.
This all but secured the Raiders the No. 1 pick at a critical juncture. The franchise has not made the playoffs since 2021, under interim coach Rich Bisaccia. Before that? In 2016, under Jack Del Rio. Before that? Their Super Bowl season in 2002. The Raiders have been a case study in personality disorder, having tried on so many different identities in such a short period of time that the remaining pieces are merely cockroach survivors, not building blocks.
This is a team that has perpetually lacked a sense of self since Y2K. Selling Brady a sweetheart percentage of minority ownership was a very expensive, complicated and clamorous way of changing that.
Brady, the greatest quarterback in NFL history, now has a chance to draft a quarterback at the top of the board. He has the chance to trade his best, slightly disgruntled player before the draft (Maxx Crosby) and he will very likely have a second opportunity in as many years to help hire a head coach and assemble a staff.
It is safe to say that Brady’s first attempt at doing nearly all this—selecting the quarterback, recruiting the coaches, managing the overall strategy and flow of the club—was bad enough to earn the Raiders the No. 1 pick in the first place. Pete Carroll is, at best and with all niceties attached, on the hot seat. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was fired at mid-season. Geno Smith regressed mightily from how he played in Seattle. First-round pick Ashton Jeanty is far down the list on any sportsbook’s Offensive Rookie of the Year odds. He needs 112 rushing yards next week to eclipse 1,000 in his first season. He is not even the running back with the best odds to win the award.
It’s also safe to say that this will undoubtedly be the story of the offseason. While Brady enjoys attention selectively, there is no way he’s going to escape having his fingerprints cemented to the near future of the Raiders which, depending on how he manages it, could alter the course of the franchise for the next decade.
Back in August, an Amazon Prime documentary about another team Brady co-owns, Birmingham City, revealed a moment in which the star quarterback questioned the work ethic of the team’s manager, Wayne Rooney. While Rooney is likely not Brady-level transcendent, he is arguably just as famous (as footballers tend to have a higher average Q rating globally). Rooney suggested that Brady didn’t really understand the sport and its biorhythms.
He did, however, note that Brady understands what a tireless work ethic entails.
This sets the backdrop for an offseason in which the quarterback will have to make a fascinating choice: embrace the spotlight and his apparently outsized role within the organization or allow the people he hired to do so. The former Patriots star was seen earlier in the season donning a headset during a Raiders prime-time game, which set off a firestorm of (rightful) criticism about Brady’s dual role as a minority owner with apparent say in the game plan and a broadcaster with access to other teams’ players and personnel. Brady was incensed enough about the criticism that he responded in a way that warmed any old millennial’s heart—with a post on his personal newsletter.
Clearly, though, pointing out the lack of effort in someone else sets the bar for what Brady expects of himself at the professional level as a former athlete taking on a managerial role. While, again, I don’t think this is necessarily fair, can we use Brady’s same snap judgments against Rooney to form the basis of how he approaches this offseason?
Will his work ethic take him on campus tours? To quarterback workouts? To Mobile for the Senior Bowl grind? To Indianapolis for the NFL combine information trade? While the team has a general manager, and a good one at that in John Spytek, the heft of Brady’s presence and his near-constant insistence on relentlessness superglue him to the outcome of the offseason.
In another one of Brady’s media vehicles—a series of television commercials for Fox—he drives around in a sports car and commends the ruthlessness in fellow citizens. Sitting in the driver’s seat and wearing a pair of sunglasses, he regularly laments that winning is a lonely business.
With so much on the line for the Raiders, he may find out just how lonely. Or, the alternative: how much flack he’ll get for trying to continue living the myriad lives of a part owner, broadcaster and aspiring team architect while maintaining the luxuries of retired millionaire life.
You’re now on the clock, Tom.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tom Brady, You’re on the Clock.
