OT: Brady booth-gate

[Bill Lee]

It's a "fan" thing, not rooted in logic. One needs to be emotionally invested to understand it.

Indeed, and the antidote (if you want one) is "you're just rooting for laundry".




For Tom this is a business decision, not an emotional one.

His name/reputation let him connect with an extremely wealthy guy who partners with him to invest $200M+ to get them a seat at the big table of NFL ownership.

We've all heard NFL ownership referred to as a country club, and now Tom is a member, regardless of how he quite likely used a lot of the other guy's money to do so.

Of course that seat at the table is going to "trump" the laundry in his dusty warehouse of memorabilia somewhere underneath the Tampa jerseys.

It also "trumps" any ethical concern he might have over fairness of the game, yada yada, because IMO his track record on fairness is a colorful one.

Image and fairness be damned when there's money to be made!

I agree with the idea that perhaps RKK could have headed this off at the pass, but can kinda also see why he didn't want to give TB12 a seat at the table after he tuned the team out and went off to Tampa.

A symbolic statue and a night of performative reflections was deemed good enough by both sides.

Basically RKK was good with a one night rebound instead of entering into new long term relationship.

 

[XLIX]

They're already taking over European soccer so I am sure football is just a matter of time.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's what this little foray is about. No doubt they'll host an NFL game at some point.

 

[Tunescribe]

Indeed, and the antidote (if you want one) is "you're just rooting for laundry".




For Tom this is a business decision, not an emotional one.

His name/reputation let him connect with an extremely wealthy guy who partners with him to invest $200M+ to get them a seat at the big table of NFL ownership.

We've all heard NFL ownership referred to as a country club, and now Tom is a member, regardless of how he quite likely used a lot of the other guy's money to do so.

Of course that seat at the table is going to "trump" the laundry in his dusty warehouse of memorabilia somewhere underneath the Tampa jerseys.

It also "trumps" any ethical concern he might have over fairness of the game, yada yada, because IMO his track record on fairness is a colorful one.

Image and fairness be damned when there's money to be made!

I agree with the idea that perhaps RKK could have headed this off at the pass, but can kinda also see why he didn't want to give TB12 a seat at the table after he tuned the team out and went off to Tampa.

A symbolic statue and a night of performative reflections was deemed good enough by both sides.

Basically RKK was good with a one night rebound instead of entering into new long term relationship.

Here's my take: Brady is exploring all these various enterprises in search of something that gives him the same "fix" he got when playing. The closest he's come to that is being involved with the game -- broadcasting and now, part ownership of the Raiders. Slowly but surely he's getting more involved in Vegas, working with players in practice, conferring regularly with coaches and lately donning a headset in the booth.

He's maniacal about competition/winning, that's how he became the GOAT with otherwise average athleticism. All-in emotional investment inherently is part of that. So this Raiders thing might have started as a business decision but stands to become his all-consuming passion. We'll see.

 

[Steve102]

NFL prohibits non-family employees from taking equity in teams

Again, I bring this up. Brady was known for taking the "home team discount" for much of his career. (whether he did or not can be debated) If, after he was done, RKK agreed to sell him a minority share, it would have appeared that there was a wink, nod and a handshake agreement to do so long before Brady left following the 2019 season. This is a franchise that twice got in trouble for bending the rules, and this would no doubt have been seen as them flouting the rules again. Even if everything was transparent, people would have written that the Pats were still up to their old tricks. From the article:

• Players receiving equity would raise many complex issues regarding salary cap compliance that are better avoided, the committee said.

There was no way RKK could have done this, even if he wanted to. All the talk of RKK missing the boat on Brady is nonsense.

 

[jimnance]

Everything about this situation annoys me. The laughable notion that Brady has nothing to do with the Raiders offense on game day while he is sitting there next to the coaches in the booth with a headset on. The fact that he is able to sit in preproduction meetings with the teams he is broadcasting games for and then potentially give any information he gleans to his team. He was the commentator for the Commanders last week, and guess who the Raiders’ next opponent is? The Commanders. Such a ridiculous conflict of interest. It still annoys me that Kraft didn't give him the same sweetheart deal that Fredo Davis did out there in Vegas. Statues and ceremonies will get Brady here for that day, and that is about it; meanwhile, he is traveling with Vegas to games in his free time and actively involved in running the team.

Really haven't been a fan of Brady's post-playing career in general. He has been mediocre in the booth. The previously aforementioned Raiders ownership. Shilling for crypto scams and now selling his soul for some Saudi payday to play flag football or whatever that Fanatics weasel has cooked up.

Gotta admit I've been a little disappointed by both Tom and Bill post-Patriots.
But that doesn't change the fact they're both GOATs.
But I do scratch my head at times, especially with Bill.

 

[Vindicate]

I don't really care about non-Patriots Brady. Same with Bill. Both kinda showed how larger-than-reality they feel after Brady/Patriots and eh. For me, the gloss has lost its luster. Both are just kinda meh and annoying tbh. Go ahead, spend your life with a ****hole org in a city that reeks of corruption and, when considering hydrology, shouldn't even really exist? I dunno, who cares.

 

[Tunescribe]

NFL prohibits non-family employees from taking equity in teams

Again, I bring this up. Brady was known for taking the "home team discount" for much of his career. (whether he did or not can be debated) If, after he was done, RKK agreed to sell him a minority share, it would have appeared that there was a wink, nod and a handshake agreement to do so long before Brady left following the 2019 season. This is a franchise that twice got in trouble for bending the rules, and this would no doubt have been seen as them flouting the rules again. Even if everything was transparent, people would have written that the Pats were still up to their old tricks. From the article:

There was no way RKK could have done this, even if he wanted to. All the talk of RKK missing the boat on Brady is nonsense.

Yes, a point that was worth repeating.

The other question: could Kraft have hired Brady as a highly paid consultant? I doubt there would be any impediment to that, even with a similar wink, nod and handshake implication. The only difference between that and being in ownership is he couldn't outright tell the GM, coaches, etc. what to do.

 

[Bill Lee]

Here's my take: Brady is exploring all these various enterprises in search of something that gives him the same "fix" he got when playing. The closest he's come to that is being involved with the game -- broadcasting and now, part ownership of the Raiders. Slowly but surely he's getting more involved in Vegas, working with players in practice, conferring regularly with coaches and lately donning a headset in the booth.

He's maniacal about competition/winning, that's how he became the GOAT with otherwise average athleticism. All-in emotional investment inherently is part of that. So this Raiders thing might have started as a business decision but stands to become his all-consuming passion. We'll see.

I think his "all-in emotional investment" was/is to his own development more so than that of the Patriots, the Bucs or the Raiders. I think the chip on his shoulder came from him personally feeling disrespected, not because he felt his teams were being disrespected.

I think his set of interests with regard to personal developent began to expand towards wealth-building in the same time frame as he picked Giselle to be his partner. From that point on we started seeing things like him flipping real estate in Manhattan, building a mansion in Brookline on previously-untouchable land then flipping that too, the TB12 book and franchise setup, the dodgy crypto thing, etc.

I've stopped listening to Bill Simmons since he too has seemed to caught rich-guy fever and IMO is slacking on the content side, but one thing he used to say is that money is how rich guys keep score. To me this explains why they aren't content with generational wealth and do something else with their life other than figure out ways to make even more money. They are engaged in a competitive realm, and the way they keep score is by how much money they have, and why should they give up the buzz it gives if they are good at it. I definitely can see how Tom is keen to play in that world.

So it seems my take is similar to yours in that we both see wealth-building as a new field of competition for Brady. I think the difference is we don't see the emotional aspects quite the same way, but that's no big deal.

 

[Steve102]

Yes, a point that was worth repeating.

The other question: could Kraft have hired Brady as a highly paid consultant? I doubt there would be any impediment to that, even with a similar wink, nod and handshake implication. The only difference between that and being in ownership is he couldn't outright tell the GM, coaches, etc. what to do.

Sure, but that doesn't make him part of the "club". It just keeps him here like John Elway. I think the only way he's going to be an owner fully is to do what he's doing.

I googled it very quickly, and I don't see any heirs to Mark Davis. Tom Brady is shrewd. If you were going to get in bed with an ownership group, wouldn't you pick one that didn't have generations of heirs lined up?

 

[Tunescribe]

I think his "all-in emotional investment" was/is to his own development more so than that of the Patriots, the Bucs or the Raiders. I think the chip on his shoulder came from him personally feeling disrespected, not because he felt his teams were being disrespected.

I understand your point but I think the distinction gets blurred from him being extremely team-oriented toward winning as the ultimate goal. And I believe that extended to a general sense of organizational loyalty on Tom's behalf. I suppose it applies to whatever team he happens to be involved with. But I doubt he decks himself out in Raiders gear just as a fashion statement.

 

[Zuma]

 

[Tunescribe]

Interesting that Kelly feels compelled to address this. Perhaps not game plan prep, since Brady probably doesn't have time for opponent film study. But there's a ton of other things he can go over with Kelly from the prior week's game.

 

[dliverey44]

It does look sketchy imo. I guess the league is ok with it for now.

Tom is used to pushing boundaries. LOL

 

[dliverey44]

Yeah. It didn't matter for us in week 1 but I'd have a big problem with that if we were playing the Raiders shortly after Brady calls a Patriots game.

I really don't understand why. He has access to game film and can discern more on film than calling a game. Feels like you would just want to ***** about something.

 

[dliverey44]

am I the only one who thinks its no big deal? That this whole issue is as much smoke & mirrors as deflate gate was?

Brady was in the booth with the raiders OC last night... big whoop... So what?

he didn't have access to the chargers pregame plans... anything else you want to know about the chargers, or any other team for that matter, can be gleaned by subscribing to NFL+ and watching the All-22 game films...

Bunch of hooey this is... much ado about nothing

I don't think its an issue either, but fans like to ***** about things. Am I right?

 

[dliverey44]

I disagree. He shouldn't be in that booth or anywhere with communication to the coordinators or anyone on the staff. He cannot have his cake and eat it too, which is exactly what is happening here. If Aikman was broadcasting on Fox, then the next week in the Dallas booth I would be saying the same thing. At the very least the optics are horrible. Then again it's the Raiders, a trash organization with mostly trash fans so they could care less.

In the end I was shocked Brady would even want to have his name attached to such an organization.

Well yea because he has no affiliation with the team. Owners are allowed to sit in the coaches box and have a headset if they so desire. So if Aikman did it, yea it would be a huge violation.

 

[ahmed]

Does anyone still believe Brady is "a Patriot for life," as he proclaimed during his Hall ceremony last summer? He now bleeds silver and black.

That ship sailed when they pushed him out.

 

[sb1]

Imagine a coach that has inside information and still finishes 4-13. Lol

 

[Silver Blue&Red]

Who cares? The guy loves the sport and gave us 6 rings. Life is good. ... better for him, but good for us

 

[VJCPatriot]

Indeed, and the antidote (if you want one) is "you're just rooting for laundry".




For Tom this is a business decision, not an emotional one.

His name/reputation let him connect with an extremely wealthy guy who partners with him to invest $200M+ to get them a seat at the big table of NFL ownership.

We've all heard NFL ownership referred to as a country club, and now Tom is a member, regardless of how he quite likely used a lot of the other guy's money to do so.

Of course that seat at the table is going to "trump" the laundry in his dusty warehouse of memorabilia somewhere underneath the Tampa jerseys.

It also "trumps" any ethical concern he might have over fairness of the game, yada yada, because IMO his track record on fairness is a colorful one.

Image and fairness be damned when there's money to be made!

I agree with the idea that perhaps RKK could have headed this off at the pass, but can kinda also see why he didn't want to give TB12 a seat at the table after he tuned the team out and went off to Tampa.

A symbolic statue and a night of performative reflections was deemed good enough by both sides.

Basically RKK was good with a one night rebound instead of entering into new long term relationship.

If anything it's RKK's fault for not offering Tom Brady a piece of ownership after Tommy retired. That would have been a perfect opportunity to bring him into the fold.

I don't blame Brady one bit for doing what's best for him, including going to Tampa Bay to win a championship and becoming part owner of the Raiders, because it's really the Patriots ownership that let him down.

Tommy should never have been allowed to leave and just been given a contract extension. The 2/50m he got from Tampa Bay is nothing for a franchise QB. BB just wanted to get rid and we know how well he did without TB12 now.