Tom Brady now owns a five percent stake in the Las Vegas Raiders. The former New England Patriots quarterback is certainly enjoying his retirement.
Brady made his first appearance at the Raider facility on Wednesday. His entrance was accompanied by “The Autumn Wind” playing in the background. Mark Davis joked on Tuesday at the Owner’s meeting that “we traded Davante Adams for Tom Brady and a third-round pick.”
Tom Brady Will Have a Voice
Davis made it very apparent that moving forward, Brady will have a voice in football-related issues. Davis said, “He can’t play quarterback for us but he can help us find our quarterback of the future.” Whether or not that will immediately impact the current Las Vegas Raiders regime remains to be seen. Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco are in their first year as Head Coach and General Manager respectively.
Tom Brady brings a wealth of football knowledge. He’s acknowledged in most circles as the greatest quarterback of all time thanks to the number of Super Bowls that he won. He’s transitioned to a career as an announcer for Fox in addition to his ownership stake. It will be interesting to see how much influence Tom Brady has. It will also be intriguing to see what kind of decisions he chooses to make in his new role.
Impacting Brady’s Announcing Gig
At the present moment, Brady is the highest-paid announcer on Fox. It hasn’t been an easy tenure so far. His commentary has been vanilla aside from one flare-up towards Baker Mayfield that caused excitement. Based on the limits put on him, his commentary might suffer further. He’s not allowed to criticize officials, go to team facilities other than the Raiders, or even attend production meetings.
He’s also not allowed to go to team practices except for the Las Vegas Raiders. All of these things are fundamental to being an announcer. There are many times when an announcer is able to cite things they saw when they visited a team during the week. They’re able to recite practices they saw and conversations they had during the week as well. Brady won’t be able to do any of that moving forward.
Does ‘Patriot Way’ Come to Las Vegas?
Last Halloween, Davis purged the “Patriot Way” out of Las Vegas by firing Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler. McDaniels and Ziegler were disciples of Bill Belichick, Brady’s Head Coach in New England. McDaniels also coached Brady as Offensive Coordinator. Brady might lean on his Patriot roots and bring some former Patriots to the organization. McDaniels and Ziegler are unlikely, but Belichick is available.
Belichick parted ways with New England following the 2023 NFL season. The end of his time there was brutal with only one playoff run after Brady left for Tampa Bay in free agency in 2020. The team also didn’t draft well in the last several seasons. It’s possible that Brady might trust Belichick to run the ship in Vegas. As a new owner, he could choose to rely on people he’s worked with for years.
Brady Must Try to Not ‘Be Like Mike’
There are two other instances that spring to mind where the greatest in their sport bought ownership of a team. Both times it flamed out horribly. Wayne Gretzky bought a 10% stake in the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes and immediately became president of hockey operations. Gretzky made his agent the General Manager, and himself the Head Coach, and it ended in failure. Their best finish was 12th in the West.
Michael Jordan’s tenure as the owner of the Charlotte Hornets was infamously bad. Jordan bought into the Hornets in 2006 and took over basketball operations. Jordan drafted terribly throughout his tenure and failed to build a winner. The Hornets made the playoffs only three times in his tenure from 2006 until 2023 when he sold the team. If Brady wants success, he needs to avoid similar pitfalls.
Conclusion
The Las Vegas Raiders need a direction. This season has been brutal and the team just traded away Davante Adams. They’ve been directionless for a long time now. Since Mark Davis took over ownership in 2011, the Las Vegas Raiders are 89-129. Before that under his father Al Davis, the Raiders went 39-93 between 2003 and 2011. The fanbase and organization are starving for hope.
Brady takes ownership of a team that was once the winningest organization in Professional Sports. It was a constant mention in the yearly NFL Films highlight videos until the Raiders lost that stat in 2004. They were a proud organization once. Brady will hopefully look to reestablish that. It will take time as the Las Vegas Raiders are 2-4 under a first-year Head Coach and in need of a franchise quarterback.
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