49ers turn to McJones, Caleb Williams remains on fire
USA Today Sports’ Joe Rivera and Chris Bumbaca have analyzed some of the most notable overreactions since the second week of the 2025 NFL season.
Seriously sports
- Tom Brady’s dual role as an owner of NFL broadcasters and minority has raised questions on the league.
- Brady’s ruthless competitiveness was part of his brilliance, but it caused many headaches in the NFL.
- The NFL has spent most of the week dealing with Brady’s latest moves.
Even after retiring, Tom Brady is giving NFL heartburn.
Ah, the league says all the right things. it’s okay! Are you okay! That Brady appears to be a de facto member of the Las Vegas Raiders coaching staff, but his job as a Fox analyst gives him backstage access to his future enemies. His new flag football tournament in Saudi Arabia features NFL players and possibly poses a threat to the final NFL road surface, but is totally cool.
But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must wonder what kind of black cat he ran. It’s been 10 years since Deflategate, but Goodell still deals with Brady and his preferences, stretching the game’s standards and rules like a rubber band.
“This shouldn’t happen because you’re a commentator for an NFL football game,” ESPN analyst Marcus Spears said Tuesday.
“In fact, it questions the integrity of the NFL.”
Well, yes. But when did that have bothered Brady?
Look, Brady is the first Barott Hall of Fame. Seven-time Super Bowl champions ran Roughshod for the rest of the NFL over 20 years in January. No one was squeezed out of talent and intelligence more than Brady.
But part of Brady’s brilliance was his ruthless competitiveness. This is someone who doesn’t eat tomatoes or mushrooms and doesn’t want to ruin the strict diet he believed he helped him to give him an edge for heaven. (Strawberry, both because he didn’t like their smell.)
And when Brady sometimes plays fast and loose with rules to win with his enthusiasm (Defrategiate), or turn his eyes off when others benefit from him (spygate), it was someone else’s problem.
Usually gooddel.
The NFL was hoping to see Tom Brady at the booth. But the coach’s booth?
When Brady agreed to become Fox’s lead analyst and signed a $375 million contract, a 10-year deal before he retired, it probably seemed like an ideal scenario for Goodell and the NFL. Brady will remain around the game – Yeeee! evaluation! – But it’s unlikely that you’ll be playing one prank, perhaps two games a week.
But before he called his first game, Brady signed a deal with Raiders owner Mark Davis and bought a share in the NFL team.
That’s how Brady’s headaches in the NFL are back.
Brady had good behavior last season, Fox’s first calling game. He is following the NFL restrictions that kept him out of other teams’ practice facilities and the production meetings that broadcasters have with coaches for games that week. He did not select Raiders rivals or judges because of excessive criticism.
“I think he’s serious about separating these two and putting no one in league or conflict positions,” Goodell said at the Super Bowl.
So the NFL has lifted some of the restrictions this season. Brady is still forbidden from other practice facilities, but he can participate in production meetings remotely. He can also interview players offsite.
Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of media distribution for the NFL, said during a conference call with a reporter on September 2nd:
How did Brady pay off that faith? Parking himself in the Raiders coach’s booth in front and center is the first opportunity he got. You can actually imagine Goodell Blansing when he sees him, thinking, “Why can’t you be like Payton?”
Raiders coach Pete Carroll tried to downplay Brady’s involvement, but Brady spoke with him “regularly” and admitted offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.
“I mean, we have a tremendous amount of assets,” Carroll said. “…We have great insights about life and football, and whatever it is, so we’re lucky to have him as the owner.”
assets. Interesting choice of words, Pete.
The NFL took damage control for most of Tuesday, and in a statement it said there was nothing banning owners from being in coach boxes or wearing headsets. If you’re a regular owner, this is fine.
Brady isn’t.
Advantage, Brady: TB12’s latest move keeps the NFL on the heel
On Sunday, Brady calls it the Dallas Cowboys Chicago Bears Fox game. The following week, the Bears play Brady’s Raiders.
“I’m not really worried about that,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said Wednesday. “I sat down with (Brady) and said, ‘Hey, don’t make this Caleb Williams, there’s no trade secret to be exchanged, for example.”
It underestimates Brady’s ability to change almost anything to benefit him.
But the bigger problem is that Brady continues to be… a problem.
On the same day, Brady announced a three-team flag-style tournament in Saudi Arabia, as he was an “asset” to the Raiders coach. In addition to Brady and fellow retired Rob Gronkowski, current NFL players such as Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey and Ceedee Lamb will play.
In other words, the NFL had to make it clear that this was not a league venture and that players needed team approval to participate.
The NFL is used to getting pushback when you want, when you want, and almost. That too is Brady and he’s not going anywhere. If Goodell is smart, he will replenish aspirin and antacids.
Follow USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrammour.
