Dan Patrick doesn’t see a world where Tom Brady can successfully pull off being FOX Sports’ top NFL broadcaster while holding his role as a minority owner of the Raiders.
During Tuesday’s installment of “The Dan Patrick Show,” the host questioned how Brady is juggling both jobs without conflict.
“I don’t know if he’s doing double duties, where he’s doing the game [with FOX], but he’s also being informed, ‘By the way, we’re going to release the entire offensive staff here,” Patrick said, referring to Las Vegas firing five offensive coaches following Sunday’s 41-24 blowout loss to the Bengals.
“It’s problematic with Tom trying to do both of these things. And its not something you normally focus on because do trust that the analysts — they go to practice, they get a lot of inside information — some coaches more forthcoming, some quarterback more forthcoming. But you need to have your announcer know what’s going on.”
Patrick mentioned that announcers aren’t allowed to go into ownership meetings.
“Now, can he get that information? Yes. But if you said, Tom Brady got to go into the locker room and say to Patrick Mahomes, ‘I’m curious about this,’ chances are, Mahomes is going to tell Tom that. But he’s not allowed to exchange information or get information because he works for the Raiders. Crazy. Problematic.”
Thats when Patrick’s co-host brought up Brady’s comments during Sunday’s Lions-Packers game, when he seemed critical of a decision by officials to eject Detroit defensive back Brian Branch.
Brady has to follow a different set of rules now that he is an NFL owner — one being that he can’t publicly critique officials.
“I don’t love that [ejection] call at all,” Brady said during Sunday’s broadcast. “Obviously it’s a penalty, but to me, there has to be serious intent in a game like this.”
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said there was no issue with Brady’s comments.
The NFL said in a statement to Sports Business Journal that there would be an issue if Brady “was egregiously critical of officiating or called into question the integrity of an official or the crew.”
Patrick went on to explain that the NFL has “Tom Brady rules” in place for him to juggle both roles.
“They allowed him to be a minority owner and then he’s also the lead broadcaster for FOX,” Patrick said. “And thats why I said he’s not going to be doing 10 years of broadcasting — he’s just not. OK, you get your fix. They’re paying you a lot of money. He’s probably got other things he’s going to do.
“But you hope he would be able to do his job like everybody else in that position does their job. But he can’t. And I do think that would make him better at his job because there are times when he relies on cliches … Tom is rookie and needs to know what is good TV.”
Patrick also explained that he believes Greg Olsen’s popularity in the booth could be “problematic” for Brady’s future in broadcasting.
“We’re still waiting for him [Brady] to be able to relax and do a game,” Patrick said. “Instead of trying to be a broadcaster doing a game, and I look forward to that.”
Brady signed a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox Sports in May 2022, and took a year off before joined play-by-play voice Kevin Burkhardt in the booth as FOX’s No. 1 broadcast duo.
Olsen — who was beloved on air and won a Sports Emmy for his work in the booth — was demoted to the No. 2 color commentator, alongside Joe Davis.
