Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is one of the NFL’s all-time greats.
He has a burning passion for the game of professional football.
And Tom Brady was faced with this tough decision about returning to the NFL.
Tom Brady gets closer to becoming an NFL owner
Legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady has been pursuing a minority ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders since last year.
He struck a deal with Raiders owner Mark Davis, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Al Davis, in May 2023.
“We’re excited for Tom to join the Raiders,” Davis told ESPN at the time. “And it’s exciting because he will be just the third player in the history of the National Football League to become an owner.”
Former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and former Chicago Bears owner George Halas Sr. are the other two.
But approval on Brady’s purchase has been pending the decision of the NFL.
A vote to approve his purchase of a minority stake in the Raiders is on the schedule for the NFL owner’s meetings in Atlanta, Georgia.
Brady needs 24 of the 32 owners to sign off the deal for it to move forward.
The league reportedly would not have put it on the agenda if it did not have the votes to pass.
Brady and Knighthood Capital Management founder Tom Wagner agreed to buy 10% of the Raiders.
They were originally going to pay $175 million for that stake but Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay balked at the sale price for being too low.
Brady and Wagner would pay an undisclosed higher price if the deal goes through.
The Las Vegas Raiders are valued at $6.7 billion by Forbes magazine.
“Since the Brady deal was first agreed to by Davis, the NFL’s owners have voted to prohibit employees outside the family of control owners from holding stakes in the team. Effectively, that means that buying part of the Raiders would foreclose on any chance of Brady resurrecting his playing career,” Sports Business Journal reported.
Brady claimed that he would be willing to listen to a team that called him about playing quarterback in the offseason but owning the Raiders would likely close the door on him ever returning to the playing field.
A potential conflict of interest for Brady
Brady is in the first year of a 10-year deal with Fox to be the lead analyst for the network’s NFL coverage.
Owning part of a team while being a broadcaster would create a conflict of interest for him.
The NFL owners placed restrictions on him before the season on access to the teams he is covering.
Brady cannot watch team practices at their facilities or take part in meetings with teams in the week before a game he broadcasts.
The NFL could fine him for criticizing officiating on air or tampering with players who could be acquired by the Raiders in his role as a broadcaster.
Some NFL owners were uneasy about Brady covering the league as a broadcaster while serving as the owner of a team.
Tom Brady will be navigating a minefield as a broadcaster and a minority of the Las Vegas Raiders if the deal goes through.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
