Greg Olsen: NFL teams have ‘every right’ to be guarded with Tom Brady

Greg Olsen has no issue with Tom Brady calling games while owning a piece of the Las Vegas Raiders, but he also has no issue with opposing teams being cautious when sharing information with the retired quarterback.

One of the biggest storylines in the early weeks of the NFL season has been the conflict of interest stemming from Brady calling games for Fox while having an active role as a minority owner with the Raiders. Last week, Brady was in the booth for Fox on Sunday and in the coaches’ box for the Raiders on Monday, ramping up calls for the seven-time Super Bowl champion to pick a lane.

His Fox colleague and predecessor in the network’s top booth won’t tell Brady to choose one or the other, but Olsen did tell Wake Up Barstool on FS1 that it’s up to the teams to be cautious when conducting production meetings with a broadcaster who is also an active owner.

“I’ve been in production meetings where teams have told us the entire game plan,” Olsen admitted in his weekly spot with Jon Gruden and Dave Portnoy. “And obviously, there’s a level of trust that you’re not gonna go out and share it with anyone before kickoff. And there’s teams that tell you absolutely nothing. You hang up from the call and you’re like, ‘that was a complete waste of time, that adds no value.’

“I have no issue with him being an owner, I have no issue with him doing both, personally. But if a team wants to be guarded on whether they give him access or what they tell him, they have every right to do that. I think it’s up to every team to control their own information flow and the onus is on them.”

Olsen didn’t go the Stephen A. Smith route to say teams should lie or trick Brady with dummy playbooks, but acknowledging they have the right to be cautious or guarded is still notable. And Olsen is right, of course teams have the right to be guarded when Brady asks them to divulge their game plan, particularly teams who have the Raiders on their schedule.

Obviously, Olsen isn’t going to throw his colleague under the bus and publicly claim Brady has to give up broadcasting, as much as he might like to have his seat on the No. 1 booth back. But if teams are going to hesitate to share information with Brady, it could seemingly impede the top broadcast team for Fox.