Super Bowl LIX could be missing some much-needed detail due to Tom Brady's conflict of interest with the Chiefs and Eagles
Tom Brady is living a double life right now. A pretty sweet gig as an analyst for Fox Sports, that's just his side hustle after he gained an ownership share of the Las Vegas Raiders. But as you might expect, owning a team and also being allowed to watch other teams practice isn't exactly ethical, […]
Tom Brady is living a double life right now.
A pretty sweet gig as an analyst for Fox Sports, that's just his side hustle after he gained an ownership share of the Las Vegas Raiders.
But as you might expect, owning a team and also being allowed to watch other teams practice isn't exactly ethical, and it may leave the viewer as the only loser in the situation…
Tom Brady not allowed to attend Super Bowl LIX Practice
“When [Brady] was approved as an owner of the Raiders, there were a lot of discussions internally and that ended up being the recommendation of the league office, that it didn’t make sense to have him in the production meetings,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told The Athletic. “That’s where that rule came from. Since he’s doing the game this week, we have no issue with him being in our production meetings. He’ll have the access that any broadcaster would have.”
And while Brady will have access that most analysts have in terms of being able to interview coaches and players, he will be missing a critical element of the in-game analysis: Practice.
Sure, does Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion need to watch the Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles practice to know what he's talking about on Sunday?
Absolutely not.
But are there potential context and details that will be left out of his analysis on Sunday?
You bet.
For someone with the eye of Brady and a brain that has watched more hours of film and practice tape than the person writing this has been alive, the amount of nuance and subtle tells he could potentially use in his analysis is broad.
But the Eagles, the Chiefs, and the NFL know that even if it's the Super Bowl, allowing the owner of another team to watch practice is a slippery slope, and one that many saw coming from a mile away:
Brady is also barred from making certain critical comments on the air, such as questioning the decisions or the referees. He has to play by the same company-man censorship rules that players, coaches, and owners have to. And he has to do it while trying to entertain millions for 3 hours every Sunday in Fox’s marquee game of the day. Including, this year, the Super Bowl.
– Easton Freeze, A to Z Sports
So will the analysis of Sunday's Super Bowl be sub-par? Doubtful. We have seen Brady improve every game since when he called the Week 1 opener between the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys.
But man, it would be nice to hear one of the greatest ever to pull some thoughts from practice in earlier the week.
