Tom Brady, Fox Sports broadcaster and Las Vegas Raiders minority owner, is facing scrutiny over a significant issue. His dual roles as a broadcaster and team owner since the 2024 NFL season are now being questioned by a former Rams defensive back.
Former Rams Defender Calls Out Tom Brady, Slams His Conflicted Dual Role in the NFL
Brady officially joined the Raiders’ ownership ranks in Oct. 2024 after league approval was granted for his acquisition of a roughly 5% share. He entered the group alongside business partner Tom Wagner, becoming part of the broader ownership structure headed by principal owner Mark Davis.
But before taking up that role, he had signed a massive 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox Sports in May 2022. And this is the first time in NFL history that someone is involved in two important roles. However, the former Rams DB Adam Archuleta doesn’t think everything is okay with the legendary NFL player taking up two roles.
“Players say they don’t care, but Tom absolutely has an advantage that no other owner gets,” Archuleta took it to X (formerly known as Twitter), who has played for the St. Louis Rams from 2001 to 2005. “It’s not stealing plays. It’s the access, talking ball with players and coaches week after week, guys who could end up on your team someday.”
“I’ve done 7+ years of production meetings, practices, pre-game sits, interviews… I can tell you in one conversation if a guy’s a locker room plus, someone I’d WANT on my team. Big help in free agency, no team has access to players before it starts without tampering,” Archuleta said.
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The former DB, who has also played for the Raiders in the 2008 NFL season, also added, “Especially with coaches, that’s the biggest edge. Coaches can’t talk ball with coaches from other staffs. They’re competing, so they stay in their bubble. We get access to all of them. New ideas, different ways to build relationships, honestly one of my favorite parts of the job.”
And concluded his take, saying, “At least they keep him out of facilities and practices, that would be a game changer. But a football mind like his picking up insights every week from those chats? Big time edge.”
Because of his work in television, Brady can interact with players and coaches from teams across the league. It is an access most owners do not receive, raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
In a league-wide poll conducted by The Athletic recently, most players expressed no concern over Brady’s dual roles. An overwhelming 84.2% supported him holding both positions, while 6.6% disagreed and 9.2% said they were indifferent.
That is why the discussion about Brady’s conflict of interest intensified during a Week 2 Monday Night Football game in the 2025 NFL season when a live shot showed Brady in the Raiders booth with a headset on in the opening quarter of their 20 to 9 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
A similar situation came up in Week 3, when Brady was part of the broadcast team for the Chicago Bears’ matchup against the Dallas Cowboys. The following week, the Raiders were set to host the Bears. Leading into that game, Bears coach Ben Johnson downplayed any concern about a potential competitive disadvantage stemming from his talks with Brady, making it clear that no “trade secrets” would be shared.
The following day, the league clarified that Brady had not broken any rules. National Football League officials stated that he is not permitted to attend team facilities for practices or production meetings. However, they noted that the former quarterback is still allowed to be present in a coach’s booth.
Per ESPN, the league has eased some of the limits on Brady’s role, now allowing him to attend broadcast production meetings, where crews meet with head coaches and key players. His participation must still be virtual, and he is not permitted to attend practices or be inside team facilities.
Reacting to this, Brady once responded through his newsletter, “If I can bring my knowledge and experience to bear inside the Raiders organization to ensure there’s one more team that does things the right way; and then I can apply it in the booth so millions of people know and enjoy what the right way looks like, then I will have lived up to the expectations I have for myself, and I will have done so in service of a much greater duty. One that I believe every person involved with pro football shares, whether they know it or not.”
However, as the offseason goes on, Brady’s unusual spot with Fox Sports and the Raiders is not slipping out of view. Even if he follows the rules, people will keep questioning the optics. That pressure could push the NFL to sharpen its policies, turning Brady’s situation into a real test of fairness and trust.
