Las Vegas Raiders minority owner Tom Brady will be returning to Foxboro as a Fox analyst...insert your own punchline.
The Las Vegas Raiders schedule landed on the bland side compared to many of the elite teams, but that’s not exactly a shocker. The Raiders were 3-14 last year, and they became so unwatchable that the league’s broadcast partners don’t want to touch Las Vegas in a prime-time slot, either on Monday or Sunday night.
But the Raiders minority owner is a big part of those broadcast plans, and Fox analyst Tom Brady will definitely be having a moment that bears more than a mention as part of the schedule release. Brady will be returning to Foxboro as an analyst when the New England Patriots host the Green Bay Packers in Week 9, according to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN.
This reunion was always going to be a storyline regardless of the circumstances, but it will be especially juicy this season. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel has gotten a serious taste of tabloid life since his six-year affair with featured reporter Diane Russini of The Athletic first surfaced last month, and no one has a clue about how this will impact the Pats, assuming Vrabel is roaming the sidelines in this one.
Brady will now become a part of that storyline for this game. He’s more than used to being tabloid fodder, and his eventual divorce from model Gisele Bunchen was a Page Six staple back when that went down.
Brady’s stint as a broadcaster has been uneven when it comes to criticism, and he often drifts into the land of bland with his comments. He’s been part of a running ego war with his former coach, Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft, who are also used to regular pop-up appearances in the tabloids.
It’s always been a fascinating dynamic, and that’s not going to change this time around. Expect every word Brady utters to be parsed, analyzed and scrutinized, especially if either team is struggling or the game ends up on the boring side.
As for the Raiders’ role in all of this, they’d prefer to pass. Brady seemed to be integrally involved in the team’s plans until the combine, but he’s been surprisingly out of sight since, which is somewhat amazing considering what a spotlight hound Brady tends to be.
The Raiders have been doing business like a professional football team since then, which is also more than a little surprising. They had a successful draft that was largely free of controversy, and new coach Klint Kubiak would undoubtedly like to steer clear of any mess after a rash of statements from Brady about his role as a minority owner, which were supposed to provide clarity but instead ended up muddying the waters even further.