On Wednesday, The Athletic reported, citing sources, that the NFL will allow Tom Brady, Fox Sports' lead TV game analyst and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, to participate in production meetings with coaches and teams this season.
During his first year in broadcasting with FOX Sports, Brady was largely kept out of these information-gathering sessions. The report also notes that he is expected to remain barred from team practices like last season.
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With the NFL reportedly easing the rules for Brady, sports broadcaster Dan Patrick is urging him to make a choice: fully commit to being a minority owner or focus entirely on his role as a FOX Sports color analyst.
"He shouldn't be in these production meetings," Patrick said on the "Dan Patrick Show." "You're a minority owner of the Raiders. Now, he was still involved with a team that was involved in the two biggest cheating scandals of all time. He was involved in... well, his team was involved in Spygate. There was Deflategate. He shouldn't be in these meetings. It's just-pick one or the other.
"The NFL wants Tom to be there during the games. I get that. But now you're changing the rules just so Tom can go into these meetings. And he does need to be in these meetings. If you want to be a broadcaster, be a broadcaster. Go into those meetings."
With Brady now in the production meetings with coaches and teams, Patrick believes that any squad that faces the Raiders this season will want to withhold information when speaking to the color analyst.
"If I'm a coach and I play the Raiders at some point this season, and I don't know how many times this would happen, how forthcoming do you want to be here?" Patrick added. "Tom can ask you anything you want. Now, you don't have to answer that. But I don't know...
"I just think you gotta be fair to being either a minority owner who is very active, from what I'm told, or are you going to be a broadcaster? Keep this in mind how competitive Tom is. I don't think this is like a summer vacation for Tom, where I'm going to be a broadcaster for a little while. He's going to want to be great, and you're going to want to get information."
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