It seems that reports that NFL owners weren’t quite ready to give their approval for Tom Brady to become a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders because of his Fox deal may not have been totally true. Tuesday’s story from Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal stated that “a person with knowledge of the situation” disclosed that “the price point” that Brady’s group and Raiders major owner Mark Davis are debating over the retired quarterback’s acquisition is still “possible”.
According to reports from as far back as October of last year, Brady and Davis’s contract had “a lot of problems,” with Davis supposedly offering Brady’s purchasing group a 10% ownership part in the team at a “discounted price.” Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico revealed in a post that was released on February 8 that Brady’s organization had updated its numbers “to mirror the Raiders’ valuation in an unrelated transaction from earlier in 2023.”
Bonsignore mentioned how the Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams “agreed to a flip-tax stipulation in which fellow owners got a piece of the sales prices” as part of those franchises receiving permission to relocate during the second half of the 2010s. Bonsignore added that “owners could want Davis to sell [to Brady] at a higher price point to maximize their 10% cut.”
Brady is set to become Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst this coming season via the terms of a 10-year contract reportedly worth $375M, and multiple reporters previously speculated that owners around the league may not want a minority owner receiving access to training facilities and to what Bonsignore referred to as “sensitive information.” Broadcasters routinely participate in pregame meetings with coaches and players throughout NFL seasons.
However, Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk noted on Tuesday afternoon that “there’s no sign that the league is set to bar Brady from ultimately entering the ownership club at this time
At Tuesday’s NFL owners meetings, Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that Brady’s status as a limited partner with the Raiders is a matter of when, not if.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a delay,” Goodell said about the situation, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. “We go through a very thorough process … We’re just going through our process. We’ve been in touch with their side. I think it’s been making progress.”
24 of the 32 team owners must vote to approve all franchise ownership changes. A vote on Brady’s deal could occur when owners reconvene in May.
Greg Olsen, Fox’s most recent lead NFL analyst, is still employed by the network and seemingly is waiting to learn if he’ll be dropped to the No. 2 broadcast crew for the 2024 campaign.
It looks like Brady won’t have to decide this autumn between working for one of the NFL’s media partners and being in a relationship with the Raiders, even though nothing is official yet.
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