National Reporter Details Concerning Reality on Tom Brady’s FOX Job & Predicts When NFL Will Take Action

Tom Brady’s presence at the as Vegas Raiders‘ Monday night game against the Los Angeles Chargers, in Week 2 game was a familiar sight for any football fan. The legendary quarterback on the sideline, a headset perched on his head—it all seemed like business as usual. But what appeared as a simple sideline visit quickly escalated, reigniting an old debate that’s been simmering beneath the surface: the unprecedented dual-role of Tom Brady as both the lead FOX analyst and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

The tension became impossible to avoid. Mike Florio, appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, said, ”It was hiding in plain sight for all of us to see for over a year. The moment we saw the incredible shrinking Tom Brady…as soon as he realized he was on screen, he hit that button and down that seat went because he knew this isn’t going to end well.”

Brady signed a huge 10-year, $375 million contract with FOX. The move into the analyst booth was something that had been expected for quite a while. What surprised most people, though, was his concurrent move into team ownership.

In October 2024, the NFL gave its blessing to the sale of a 10% Raiders stake to Brady and his business partner, Tom Wagner, a 5% stake worth about $110 million. The unusual pairing of lucrative broadcasting responsibilities and minority ownership was unprecedented and raised red flags about conflicts of interest at once.

Florio contended that the league made a mistake in allowing Brady to occupy both spots. “We never should have allowed him to pick both lanes,” he stated. “We should have told him when we did the vote last October on allowing him into the club: you’ve got to pick one or the other. You can’t do both.”

At first, the league tried to respond to the situation with a package of “Brady Rules,” which controlled his presence at production meetings, banned him from on-air analysis of referees and opposing players, and prohibited him from going onto other teams’ campuses.

But before the 2025 season, a few of these restrictions were relaxed, permitting Brady partial access to production meetings but keeping him out of other teams’ campuses.

What’s even more striking is that, despite the controversy over his dual roles, Tom Brady has remained silent. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini attempted to contact him, but he did not respond. “I did reach out to Brady for this story, but he did not return my message,” she noted in her article.

NFL’s action timeline on Tom Brady

Florio foresees the NFL taking a wait-and-see approach for the moment, but this will escalate into public scrutiny if the Raiders become a strong contender. “It’ll be like the tush push,” he said. The Eagles used the controversial “tush push” against the Chiefs, drawing criticism. A proposed ban nearly passed after the Packers’ complaint, but fell short by two votes.

“If the Raiders ever become really, really good, that’s when there’s going to be this groundswell: this can’t continue. Tom Brady can’t continue to be at these games and gather this information.” The issue is compounded because the other teams don’t have this same dual-role benefit, so the situation becomes more unbalanced the bigger the Raiders become.

The NFL is now in a fine balancing act: letting Brady continue to play both positions risks public outrage and charges of unfairness.

Florio explained, “The real value is being on the field before the game, when people are going to come, they want to talk to you. They’re going to tell you things they shouldn’t tell you. You can see what a player looks like — he looks different on TV than he looks on the field. It’s not just getting ready to face the Bears; it’s which free agents from this team would I maybe like to sign? Which assistant coaches are really making this team go?”

Former Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce also shared the concern, adding that Brady’s access is unusually valuable and that he benefited from it himself in the past.