The cat is out of the bag. During ESPN’s broadcast of Monday Night Football in Las Vegas this week, the great Tom Brady was seen throughout the game in the Raiders’ coaches’ box.
Throughout his debut season on Fox in 2024, both network executives and NFL leadership insisted that Brady, a part-owner of the Raiders and the lead analyst for the NFL on Fox, was ideally suited to handle both jobs. They felt so comfortable with the seven-time NFL champion’s ability to navigate the apparent conflict of interest that they even loosened restrictions on him as a broadcaster heading into this season.
But after Brady was seen clearly assisting Las Vegas during the game, it will be hard to continue making that case. Especially given that Brady’s assignment in Week 3 happens to feature the Raiders’ Week 4 opponent, the Chicago Bears. It was all enough for WFAN’s Boomer Esiason to rip the league, Fox, and Brady — stopping just short of calling for Brady’s job on TV.
“The fact that he’s sitting in the Raiders’ coaches’ box with a headset on and talking to Pete Carroll, talking to (Jon) Spytek, their general manager, talking to their offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, is complete and utter B.S.,” Esiason said Tuesday on Boomer & Gio. “Because the NFL is the ultimate competitive place. And you’re allowing a guy to sit there, who’s a part-owner of a team, which is fine, and now he’s involved in these game plans.”
“Utter B.S. as far as I’m concerned. … How can you be objective when you’re in this situation?”
Boomer Esiason sounds off on Tom Brady being seen in the Raiders coaches’ box on ‘MNF’: pic.twitter.com/iNissssXDj
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 16, 2025
If anyone would understand the issue here, it is Boomer Esiason. A former NFL MVP, Esiason spent several decades after retiring from the league calling games on television and radio. On Sundays, Esiason was a cohost of The NFL Today on CBS.
If Esiason believes that the knowledge a broadcaster gains in production meetings and in conversations around team facilities during the week leading up to an NFL game would help them as an executive for a team, it’s probably true.
Esiason can’t see a world in which Brady does not inevitably share intel and observations with Las Vegas coaches.
“I know he’s going to try and be objective, but how can he be objective when he’s in this situation?” Esiason continued. “And why are they allowing this?”
The key question in this Brady saga is why the NFL is going to such great lengths to keep it going. It all started when Brady first made a bid for 5 percent of the Raiders. The approval process was drawn out amid rumors that rival owners believed he was receiving a discount.
Brady’s ownership stake was finally approved last October, a few weeks into his first season calling games for Fox. The league loosened its restrictions when Brady called his first Super Bowl, then pared them down for the whole season in 2025.
In what he called the “ultimate competition” league, Esiason can’t believe that the league is so committed to Brady’s whims.
“I’m sorry. As much respect as I can have for a player and have had for a player, in this regard, this completely goes against what the NFL is all about,” Esiason said. “Because the NFL, it’s the ultimate competition. These guys are going to get fired. Guys get fired, they lose jobs. This guy seems to be insulated for some reason. And I understand why he’s insulated. He’s good for the league, I get it. But again, the conflict of interest is startling.”
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.