Plenty of sports media personalities have offered broadcast tips for Tom Brady, but Ryan Clark had by far the most surprising advice for the legendary quarterback.
Choose “selfishness.”
Clark offered that advice and similarly interesting thoughts about Brady’s future on the latest The Pivot podcast.
Brady, of course, is busy preparing for his debut as the NFL on Fox’s lead analyst. That story took on an interesting twist last week, when ESPN reported the NFL has placed severe restrictions on Brady because of his pending ownership stake with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Under those restrictions, Brady is reportedly not permitted to attend broadcast production meetings, even virtually, visit another team’s facility or watch team practices. All of that, including meeting with players and coaches, is obviously an important part of preparation for any analyst.
But Brady is prohibited from doing that, and if he is eventually approved as part owner of the Raiders, he would also face restrictions such as being unable to publicly criticize officials or other teams.
Clark said those restrictions make it almost impossible for Brady to do his job — but he should proceed anyway, out of self interest.
“Tom Brady is going to have to, for the first time in his life, choose selfishness,” Clark said. “He’s also going to have to choose to not be fully 100% invested in his job.
“Tom Brady is taking over for Greg Olsen, who right now, is arguably the best color commentator in the world. He just won the Emmy for in-game performance. And now Greg Olsen got demoted just because, Tom Brady’s name is Tom Brady. Not to say that he won’t be good … but now Tom Brady can’t go to that production meeting and get close to that quarterback … or talk to that head coach and know exactly the way that they’re working and they’re moving around in practice or some of the intimate things that he might be able to share with us.”
As Clark sees it, those limitations raise serious questions about Brady’s authenticity as an analyst.
“How do I know if what Tom Brady is saying about the officials is real, when there is a limitation and a restriction on what he can say about the officials?” Clark asked. “How do I know what Tom Brady is saying about the league is real when there’s a limitation on what he can do or say about the NFL, based on his pending ownership, or if he gets an opportunity to be part owner, his ownership in the Las Vegas Raiders.
“How do I know that when you’re talking about Antonio Pierce (Raiders head coach) you aren’t sugarcoating something so you can be nice to your head coach, or you aren’t being inflammatory in some way, so now you affect the perception of him and he can no longer have his job …”
Yet in the end, Clark said he does not blame Brady for pursuing both a role in ownership and as an analyst. In fact, given the chance, Clark said he’d do the same thing.
“There’s so much that goes into this that I think is going to taint the perception of who he is when it comes to doing his job,” Clark said, “and I still can’t say to him, ‘I wouldn’t do both.’ If I could be an owner, I would be an owner.
“Tom Brady is going to have to make a decision, if he’s OK with the perception that he’s not 100% all-in on his job, because ‘football Tom Brady’ took lesser deals. While ‘retirement Tom Brady’ said, ‘Nope, I want to be an owner, and yep, I want this $37 million (annual Fox salary), too. I’m going to do both.”
[Ryan Clark]
The post Ryan Clark: Tom Brady’s Raiders ownership means ‘he can’t do his job’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
Most Popular
Comments / 0