The NFL made a major decision regarding Tom Brady's access to NFL teams this week, just over a week before the 2025 regular season gets underway. The "Brady Rules" will no longer be in place.
The NFL will allow Brady to participate in production meetings with coaches and teams this season, after he was not allowed to last year, according to The Athletic.
Brady signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox to be their top TV game analyst in 2024. However, because of his minority owner status with the Las Vegas Raiders, the NFL did not allow Brady to participate in production meetings with teams in his first year of broadcasting.
Tom Brady will be allowed in production meetings in 2025
With Brady not allowed to have contact with the teams he was broadcasting each week, it put more work on his broadcasting partner. Play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Burkhardt would go into each production meeting and relay all the information back to Brady.
Broadcasters get all kinds of little nuggets of information from teams during those meetings to help them prepare for the game broadcast. It could be schemes they've been working on, unique stories about certain players, undisclosed injury concerns and more.
There was a shift that came last year when the NFL season reached the Super Bowl. Brady's ban was lifted for the most important game of the season, and he was allowed into the production meetings ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles matchup.
The NFL will now allow Tom Brady to take part in production meetings with coaches and teams this season, per The Athletic.
Last year, Brady was banned for much of the season from the information-gathering sessions as Fox Sports' top broadcast analyst due to his ownership role… pic.twitter.com/Iv01ctLXZH
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 27, 2025
Although Brady will be allowed to attend production meetings with teams this season, he still won't be allowed to attend practices. With Brady's involvement in the Raiders' organization, it creates a sticky situation for everyone involved.
There's obvious reasons for the limit to Brady's access to other teams, but it also takes away from his ability to broadcast at the highest level and puts more leg-work on his partner.
Brady will debut in his second broadcasting season on September 7 as the New York Giants take on the Washington Commanders, and his first spotlight game will come in Week 2 for the Super Bowl rematch between the Chiefs and Eagles.