A big part of the discussion around Tom Brady’s 10-year, $375 million deal to serve as Fox’s top NFL analyst has been about the further challenges he’s added for himself by also buying a five percent stake in the Las Vegas Raiders. Brady agreed to that move in May, but it was only officially approved by the league’s finance committee this week. But it means Brady has restrictions doing his broadcasting job that no other NFL broadcaster faces.
ESPN’s Seth Wickersham outlined in August that the league planned to hold Brady to ownership standards despite his broadcasting role, with those including that he couldn’t publicly criticize officials or other clubs, couldn’t participate in pre-game production meetings with coaches or players, could only have “strictly social communication with members of other clubs,” and more. Those restrictions kicked in immediately despite Brady’s purchase of this stake still being under review, and they may have been part of the challenges for him so far.
But they got further attention this week following the official approval of Brady’s ownership stake, particularly around a Bleacher Report graphic on this (which credited Wickersham, albeit without a link or without noting that this report came out in August):
That’s led to additional discussion on these restrictions. One person who has an interesting perspective there is Brian Baldinger. Baldinger currently works for NFL Network, Fox, Audacy, and Compass, and has called games on both TV and radio. He’ll be the analyst on the Compass radio broadcast for the Kansas City Chiefs-San Francisco 49ers game Sunday, which Brady will be calling on Fox.
On Audacy/BetQL’s You Better You Bet Wednesday , host Nick Kostos interviewed Baldinger on several fronts, but got a particularly interesting comment when asking how Baldinger thinks Brady will do under these restrictions.
After explaining the situation and the level of restrictions Brady is facing for listeners, Kostos asked “Do you think Tom Brady can succeed and be the level of analyst he was as a quarterback in the NFL with all these restrictions on him?” Baldinger responded with a lot of skepticism that Brady can do it.
“I don’t think so, Nick. It’s just going to feel awfully watered down. I mean, I’m a guy that literally absorbs information up until the opening kickoff. I’m on the sidelines every week talking to players, coaches, introducing myself to personnel people I don’t know, talking to personnel people, talking to the officials. That’s the game.
“You’re an analyst, you’re expected to be critical in certain moments. Troy Aikman was critical about a holding call on Monday night against Tyron Smith of the Jets. You can’t not be critical. These guys don’t get it all right. They get reviewed and get corrected on Monday when they make mistakes.
“You have to be critical! It’s expected. Fans don’t want to hear a watered-down…I just think it’s going to be watered down if you can’t be critical or reveal information that you might normally have gleaned from being around.
“This Kansas City game that he’s doing this weekend, I’ve been talking with Andy Reid since he was the head coach in Philly, for a long time, while I was at Fox. I always learn something from Andy. You can’t talk to Kyle Shanahan and not learn something.
“And if you can’t do that, all you’re going to get is the same information that every other fan, you or me or everyone else, gets. I don’t see how you’re going to be distinctive not getting that information, whether it’s game plan, injuries, certain decisions that were made in the prior weeks that affected the game. There’s just an awful lot that you learn in that process.”
Those are some notable comments from Baldinger, especially given the experience he has calling games. And they’re interesting with him working the same game as Brady this week. We already saw Brady take notice of Baker Mayfield’s comments on him ; we’ll see if he notes these ones too.
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