Tom Brady Was in the Raiders' Coaching Box and Everybody is Losing Their Damn Minds Over It
If ever there was a story that didn't deserve national attention, it's "TV Cameras Cut to Interesting Person During an NFL Game." That sort of content has been around since the time in 1928 when Philo T. Farnsworth pointed an early prototype camera at the Providence Steam Roller sideline to get a shot at coach Jimmy Conzelman. (Note: This probably didn't happen. It's just allegory.) Without this practice, we wouldn't have gotten all those wild facial expressions from Rob Ryan as one of his defenses sucked. Or JJ Watt's reaction to every, single occurrence that took place during a decade of Houston Texans games. Or know what it looks like when a pop star is proud of her fiance.
But it's different when said object of national attention is Tom Brady. His post-retirement life is no less controversial than his playing days were. And when he's up in the coaches' booth, headset on, just taking a minority owner's interest in the team he bought a minority owner's share of, well:
Source - The Tom Brady Rules are there aren’t really any Tom Brady Rules. ...
[T]he ESPN broadcast of Chargers-Raiders showed Brady in the Las Vegas coaching box, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with members of the staff and wearing a headset. Sideline reporter Peter Schrager said Brady calls offensive coordinator Chip Kelly two or three times each week.
It underscores the existence of an obvious conflict of interest. Just yesterday, Brady worked the Eagles-Chiefs game, where he had an opportunity to pick up much more intel about the Raiders’ AFC West rivals than any advance scout could ever muster.
Do we really think Brady will share nothing he gleaned from the Chiefs’ defense, or offense, during his $37.5 million per year day job before the Raiders face the Chiefs in Week 7?
That’s the essence of the conflict. He has a duty to Fox to perform the best possible game broadcast. He has a duty to the Raiders to help them win as many games as possible.
And the league lets him do both.
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This is great. It's brings me back to the good old days of "unfair advantage" talk. The original "Brady Rule" about protecting quarterbacks, which was actually the Carson Palmer Rule, but it stuck to him. Plus Tuck Rules and Spy cameras and air pressure needles and trick formations. All that stuff that the GOAT supposedly employed to gain a competitive edge and rig the entire system in his favor.
Now I say this as no fan whatsoever of the Las Vegas Raiders or any past iterations of the franchise. I've said before and I'll say again. The Patriots Wild Card game in Oakland when I was a kid is to me what Bruce Wayne's parents being murdered in an alley was to him. That game was a total bag job and the officials were as crooked as a god's hind leg. And not enough bad things can happen to them until that wrong is righted.
But I do have a certain affinity for this minority owner. And to all those who are arguing this is yet another example of him getting an unfair advantage, I say this:
You're right. Now fuck off.
What? Do you honestly expect normal rules that are in place for 31 other ownerships to apply to him? He's Tom fricking Brady. You can't reign him in with your little "conflict of interest" guidelines. He gets to sit in on production meetings with head coaches and coordinators, then report right to Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly. He no doubt sits in on quarterback meetings with Geno Smith, explaining everything a team plans on doing to stop him.
How? Why? Because he can, that's why. No rule has ever stopped him before, why should this one? He's Nietzsche’s Übermensch. There are no repercussions to his actions. He lives a consequence-free existence as an essential part of his life of pure self-determination.
So good luck with your little fits of righteous indignation, America. They never stopped Brady before. There's no reason to think they will this time. But feel free to keep trying. Maybe one of these years it will work out for you.