Raiders minority owner Tom Brady had the opportunity to attend a game on Monday night and to the surprise of many, he was in the coaches’ box wearing a headset during the game.
Because of his access to NFL teams with his broadcasting job with FOX, many have taken issue with Brady’s largely undefined role with the Raiders and one of those voices on Tuesday was former Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason.
“The fact that he is sitting in the Raiders’ coaches’ box, with the headset on and talking to Pete Carroll, talking to Spytek, their general manager, talking to their offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly, is complete and utter B.S.,” Esiason said Tuesday on the Bommer & Gio podcast.
“Because the NFL is the ultimate competitive place and you’re allowing a guy to sit there, who’s part owner of a team, which is fine, and now he’s involved game plans. And now he’s going to be meeting with these coaches and talking about players? That is utter B.S. As far as I am concerned…”
“Because it tilts the balance of, I guess you can say competitiveness, because now he has intimate knowledge, obviously, of the team that he owns, the Raiders. he’s sitting in there listening and talking to GMs. He’s also talking to other coaches and staff, other players around the league… I know he’s going to try to be objective. But how can you be objective when you’re in this situation? And why are they allowing this?”
While some NFL teams might take issue with Brady’s role with the Raiders, it’s worth noting that there’s an ownership dynamic in Las Vegas that is largely unprecedented.
The presumption of many is that Brady gives the Raiders an advantage in the personnel department (and in the press box on Monday), but it will be interesting to see what that advantage, if there actually is one, really looks like.
During Monday’s game, the NFL posted on X that Brady and Raiders’ offensive coordinator Chip Kelly have been working “closely together” on game plans, but the post was quickly deleted.
On Tuesday, Raiders’ head coach Pete Carroll downplayed Brady’s role in the building.
“He’s not talking to us about anything other than our conversations that are random,” Carroll said of Brady’s involvement with the coaching staff. “He doesn’t want to be that kind of a factor, so he’s not.”
From the time he arrived in Las Vegas, Brady has downplayed his involvement with the Raiders, but several reports have suggested he made secret trips to team meetings and was heavily involved in the team’s quarterback search.
For all of his efforts to distance himself from day-to-day operations with the Raiders, Brady’s presence among the coaches on Monday night left little room for interpretation.
Mark Davis acknowledged it earlier this month, and it has become obvious to everyone on the outside: Brady has a heavy hand in everything on the football side of operations in Las Vegas and based on Monday’s reports and images from the press box, Brady’s job extends to game planning and to some degree, working with the coaches in the press box when he is around.
x: @raidersbeat
So is it utter B.S if Mark Davis sits in coaches box with a headset on ?
I’d be more concerned with the marriage between the NFL and gambling “tilting the balance of games,” than Tom Brady rooting for a team where he’s a minority owner.