As of the third Thursday of October, Tom Brady is permitted to serve as Fox Sports' lead in-game NFL analyst and as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders as long as he follows certain guidelines related to the Fox gig.
For a mailbag published on Thursday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated touched upon whether Brady could soon part ways with Fox and instead work to "fix" the Raiders as a front-office executive.
"I got some time with Raiders owner Mark Davis," Breer explained, "to discuss this Tuesday afternoon, a couple of hours after he and his peers voted Brady’s purchase of a piece of his team through. My main takeaway was that, in time, that’ll likely come."
Long before other NFL owners approved of the Raiders-Brady marriage, Richard Deitsch of The Athletic and other media insiders predicted that the seven-time Super Bowl champion wouldn't complete his 10-year, $375M deal with Fox because he allegedly wants to be more than just a broadcaster. It was then reported this week that Brady will "have a prominent voice in the [Raiders'] football operation" and eventually "help the franchise with sponsors and season ticket holders and in recruiting top talent to the organization on every level (including players)."
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has repeatedly argued Brady cannot possibly have such a role with any one club and still work as an unbiased NFL announcer at the national level.
"Brady’s competitiveness probably won’t allow for him to sit idly by on the sidelines," Breer continued. "And I don’t think his decision to join the Raiders' ownership...was with the intention to do so from afar."
Interestingly, Breer hinted that Brady could call former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel about joining the Raiders as soon as this offseason. Vrabel and Brady were teammates with the New England Patriots. Vrabel is spending the ongoing campaign as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns.
Meanwhile, multiple sources "high-up in the Patriots organization" reportedly believe Brady will reach out to Bill Belichick about possibly replacing Antonio Pierce as Las Vegas' head coach this winter.
All of these rumblings suggest it's only a matter of time before Brady becomes more committed to turning the Raiders around than calling a Sunday afternoon game between two random NFC clubs. In short, Greg Olsen could find himself back on Fox's No. 1 NFL announcing team potentially as soon as next September.
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