By Richard Deitsch, Andrew Marchand, Tashan Reed and Vic Tafur
Tom Brady’s agent says he’s committed to sports broadcasting for the long haul.
Don Yee, Brady’s longtime agent, said the famous quarterback-turned-Fox NFL broadcaster plans to stay with Fox for the duration of his 10-year broadcasting contract. Yee told SBJ’s Ben Fischer that “Tom has had a tremendous amount of fun working with Fox this year, and he’s really excited about the future with Fox and his growth on their team. And this year was the first year of a long relationship.”
Fischer asked Yee specifically if Brady intended to fulfill the terms of his contract and Yee responded he did. The Athletic has reached out to Yee for comment.
Plenty have predicted Brady will leave Fox before the end of the contract including The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch (the writer of these very words), who boldly prognosticated in a 2025 sports media prediction column that Brady would get deeper involved with the Las Vegas Raiders in the offseason and decide to go all in with NFL ownership by the start of the next NFL season. (Don’t go to Vegas on Deitsch’s prediction.)
Brady wasn’t formally approved as a minority owner of the Raiders until last October, but he reached an agreement with controlling owner Mark Davis to do so way back in May 2023. That’s why the topic of the level of access Brady would have with teams as a Fox broadcaster was already a hot topic going into the 2024 season, which was his first on the job.
Ultimately, Brady, Fox and the NFL agreed before the season to put extensive restrictions on what he’s allowed to do in place. He’s not allowed access to other teams’ facilities and practices, nor can he attend broadcast production meetings, which usually include interviews with coaches and players before games.
That’s been the case all season, but the topic surfaced again after the Raiders fired GM Tom Telesco and head coach Antonio Pierce earlier this month. Davis consulted Brady prior to making those firings. And, since then, Brady has been involved with reaching out to GM and head coach candidates as well as participating in interviews.
It’s created a situation where Brady is calling the games of coaches and executives that he’s either already interviewed or could at some point. For instance, Brady will call the divisional round matchup between the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders on Saturday. Brady will be called upon to analyze the decision-making of Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, even though he’s interviewed them both to potentially become the Raiders’ next head coach. He may also speak to Johnson and/or Glenn on the sidelines before kickoff.
That’s a pretty obvious conflict of interest, but it’s one that — at least for now — the NFL and team owners have accepted living with.
Davis has not spoken to the media since firing Pierce and Telesco, and at the owners netting in December said he was comfortable with Brady not taking an active role of power on the Raiders while he focused on broadcasting. Brady also told former teammates he wants to spend time with his kids.
It should be noted that according to NFL rules, Brady currently cannot have a title with the Raiders beyond minority owner. Those with equity in a franchise can only be employees if they’re related to the controlling owner, which is still Davis. So, even if Brady did step away from Fox at some point, he couldn’t formally step into a role such as president of football operations.
No surprise Brady stays at Fox
So Tom Brady is going to continue to work his half-the-year, once-a-week job that pays him nearly $40 million per year? Wow, what a shocker!
While there have been predictions — thanks, Richard — and speculation, sources close to Brady have been telling me for the last week he is going to continue. The predictions were fun, but it is 10 years and $375 million after all and Brady likes the part-time job. There was no real story that he was going, going, gone.
Still, the noise about it got too loud so Yee told the Sports Business Journal that Brady is going to continue to talk about football for almost $2 million a game. Tough decision!
Yee’s comments extinguish the aggregators and clear the angle for Brady, who will be addressing the media, leading up to the Super Bowl.
While we all can — and will — have an opinion on how he sounds in the booth, Brady is into it, according to those same sources. Fox Sports has nurtured him along. He is well-liked by his co-workers and, from all sides, he is enjoying it.
In a perfect world, someone with ownership in the Raiders would not be broadcasting games of other teams. But this just in — we live in an imperfect world.
Brady may one day walk away from the booth, but it will be when he is fully in control of a team. Do you know a good way to maybe make that ultimate dream come true? Continue to collect $37.5 million a year for part-time work that you are actually enjoying. — Andrew Marchand, sports media columnist
Required reading
(Photo: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
