Rex Ryan reacts to Brady’s roles as Raiders limited partner and FOX broadcaster has raised questions
file jobs, right? One of them is he is part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and the other certainly the one everyone is more intimately aware of is that he’s the lead broadcaster on Fox every single week. Let me show you how this becomes a conflict of interest. People, you may have heard it this week and wondered, well, what exactly does it mean? Week one, he broadcast Giants at Commanders. Today, his team, the Raiders, are playing the Commanders. Let me be even more direct. Today, he’s doing Cowboys at Bears. Next Sunday, those Bears are playing at the Raiders. So if he has any sort of inside information that others wouldn’t normally have, it might put his team at an advantage and thus the other team at a disadvantage. That’s certainly what the suggestion could be. Chefty, no one talks to more people around the NFL every day than you do. What are they saying about this? Well, it’s amazing how many conversations come back to Tom Brady. In the last segment, we’re talking about how his quarterback sneaks were unstoppable. Now we’re talking about him as a limited partner in the Raiders and a broadcaster for Fox and everybody’s trying to figure out what exactly is going on and whether there’s a conflict of interest. I can tell you there is a division of thought here. There are some people around the league who I think do have some concerns about this. They’re like, “How could he be allowed to talk to teams, own a team, have that team play like they’re broadcasting the Bears today and playing the Bears next week?” They don’t like that. But there are other people say, “What what is the big deal? You’ve been through production meetings. You’ve been through production meetings. You control what you say. I’m on the phone with people. They control what they say. They’re not going to divulge the first 15 plays of a game. You can share what you want. So, what is the big deal? And I also think Tom Brady feels like he’s professional enough to study film on these guys and know exactly what their tendencies are. He doesn’t even need to hear it because he’s so familiar with the game. So, why are people getting worked up? But there are some people who are rattled by it. Yeah. I mean, let’s face it, Tom Brady would never been the rules, right? Oh my goodness. But you know what? I quite honestly though, I mean, you you’re right, Adam, you control the narrative. So, as a coach, every single week, I don’t know if fans know it, but every single week you have a production meeting. So, the head coach goes in, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and selected players, generally the quarterback. All right? And so, you control the message. And there’s plenty of times, look, if I ever trusted a guy, it’s not just Tom Brady. If there’s somebody that you don’t trust that has actually, you know, earned that reputation that this is a guy you can’t trust, I would I would feed that guy so much crap it was unbelievable. Like, oh, now we’re going to do this. You’re going to be doing the exact opposite. All right, but for the most part, you you tell your team, you sit back. Here’s the message we’re going to send. This is what we’re going to do or whatever. And look, man, you got bigger issues. If you speaking to the media guys is your biggest concern, you got bigger issues as a team. Go out and play. You just said it though. You, this is something that you do give thought to, right? Like who’s calling the game. And the truth is the access is varied depending on who’s calling this. And Tom Brady has formed a lot of relationships around the league, right? Adam just mentioned it. We talk about him a lot. He’s been the face of the league for the last 20 years. Like when I was in Kansas City, when John Gruden would come around and call our games, I mean, he had unfettered access. I mean, he’d be in our meeting rooms on the practice field. I mean, he might as well have been wearing Chief’s gear, right? And then when I had our production meetings with him, there was a level of transparency that I was comfortable with because of his relationship with Andy Reid, right? And so, again, did we just see the picture of Tom Brady in the coaches booth with the headset on, right? Like, this is one of the most competitive human beings that this game has ever seen. I mean, it’s like I mean, I’m I’m not giving him information to Rex’s point, but it’s not nothing. Like, is it manageable? Yes. But again, I’m not giving him access to anything. If I’m a team that that is going to play himself, guess what? Guden’s coming to the meetings. He’s around the facility. Tom’s not allowed in the building. He could only be on virtual calls. So, we go back to what Rex is saying. You control what you share. So, if you don’t trust the guy and you think he’s affiliated with the Raiders, he’s going to share trade secret, which maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t, don’t tell him valuable information. You still get to control what you do or don’t share with him. No, no question. Right. And a lot of this has changed with the virtual production meetings and again he’s not on premises. But again, I would be very careful what I did tell him and I would to Rex’s point, I would I would instruct my players to be very careful. Again, he was sitting in the coach’s box with the headset on, right? Like this isn’t some passive owner. He’s very involved in this and then obviously has his day job where he’s calling these games and and there is a level of intimacy. I’m saying when you do call these games depending on your relationships with these organizations. Yeah. And the thing too, I would always tell my players too, uh, you don’t have to swing at every pitch. All right? So, if there’s a question that you’re uncomfortable with, just let it go. Just say, you know, I’m not real comfortable with it. You move on. It’s no big deal. All right? There’s plenty of times to do that. And and Bruce Bait, uh, who is our PR guys, like Rex, I told you that a million times. All right? But it is the truth. And and and quite honestly, look, the these guys are way more like you you can trust these these guys. They’re just you’re just trying to make it a better production for the uh for the broadcast. That’s that’s important for the entire football league that that you give some of this access. Okay. If you’re uncomfortable, then don’t answer. Final words. I I I guess I would say this. Do I think that Tom Brady’s going to take some little morsel of information that he heard in a production meeting and go run back to go tell the Raiders head coach or their front? Do you think he’s going to do that? Now again, I don’t think it’s going to matter much, but the perception of it, there’s a lot of personnel information though here. I’m not talking about X’s and O’s like he’s But if he knows your personnel and how you feel about certain players, good and bad, right, that that’s valuable information as as the season goes on. I I think it would be unrealistic not to expect him to take advantage of whatever he can for that role. And that’s why then come back to what Rex said, NFL head coaches, in my experience, are about as paranoid a group of people as you will ever come across. I have to believe they’re not telling him anything and that’s just the way it’s going to be. And I don’t I don’t think once you accept that as the given, then it isn’t a problem. If you don’t give him any information that becomes an advantage to the Raiders and thus a disadvantage to yourself, then it isn’t really a problem. As Shy said, all roads eventually lead back to Tom Brady always. Meanwhile, we’ve got interesting action coming up today. What’s Debo Samuel going to do with a backup quarterback today, Alex? Oh, I think he’s going to do well today. Right. He fits in this offense great. Marcus Mariota’s been there. I think he has a great tool set as well. He played well last year uh in in lie of J of Jaylen Daniels going up against the Raiders. And then how about we got we just got to feel it, right, Rex? You got sometimes you got to really feel the turf before you can go out and play. I don’t know why you guys are focused on me answering this thing, but uh grounding ground is grounded. That’s it. Yes, Rex the podiatrist at work. All right, as we continue, it’s our favorite. Oh, look at that picture. In the stadium knows, the team knows they prepare it and they still can do it. It’s an advantage because their players are tougher. The essence of football is violence. All right? It’s pushing someone out of the way. It’s the it’s I I’ve heard like Steve Young and all these quarterbacks, the artistry of the quarterback and all. No, the when you come down to it, it’s blocking, it’s tackling, it’s who’s tougher. And this is what the Eagles are. They’re just tougher and stronger and their O line is better than everyone else. and no one can stop it. I respect the play even as a defender. You have to figure it out. However, I can’t stop this play if they’re false starting because I’m in a four-point stance and I’m looking inside at that ball and then this guard comes and hits me in the back of the neck when I haven’t seen him move. That’s what has has to See, Drew, that’s that’s it in a nutshell. That’s what’s being taught. I think that that’s it. Look, nobody can stop Tom Brady for quarterback sneaking. I can assure you for a hundred years Tom Brady had no athletics. He couldn’t squat 200 pounds. Doesn’t matter. They they blocked it well. So, this play I don’t want to see thrown out. I want to see it officiated properly. And when you see, look, the Eagles are teaching the guards to fire off a little early. Why is that important? Because you’re on your heels. You’re not attacking them. They’re attacking you. You’re in the catch mode now because you have you can’t react until the ball moves. So, what what it is a typical cadence, all right, fans, is this blue 80 blue 80 said hut. And so what they’re doing now, the guards are jumping just after the set, right before the hut. Like it’s that quick and they’re getting that momentum going. That’s why they’re moving early. It’s an advantage to them. They got momentum coming. That’s why they’re so darn successful with it. It’s going to be interesting to see if this officiating thing is is finally done correctly. Will they still have the success? I think they’re still going to have a lot of success. I I don’t think that for a minute. Why? because of those physical traits that you explained. They are physical. They’re well coached. That offensive line coach does a hell of a job. But make no mistake by it, fans. All right, Tom Brady, you can look at the numbers. Back in New England, back when I called a a timeout against that stupid undefeated team, right? Okay. By the way, we stopped them. That play, we stopped him again. Another play. On defense, you’re allowed to make a damn play. All right, shut up. Quit making excuses. Make a play. Bend those dang elbows. Get a guy behind him and roll your damn guys through there. Let’s go. Yeah, I think today in this game the microscopic lens will be on the officiating and the tush push. I think me going forward will this will they still keep the same um you know officiating going down the road. Like you said late in the game is when Philadelphia’s tush push really hurt teams. I just want to see later in the season are we still keeping the same rules as how we’re going to officiate that play. La last thing here on this note. Listen, this was pushing the runner forever was illegal, right? So, this isn’t something that’s been around in football for a long, long time. And to the Brady note, listen, Tom Brady was great at QB sneaking because he only did it in optimal looks. They were an offense that had double call. So, if you put a bunch of big guys in there, they handed the ball off outside and had to take risk in handing the ball off four yards deep. It’s different with Eagles. They do not care what you line up in because they take all these advantages, right? They There is no more neutral zone, by the way. We’ve just lined up on the football. what happened to the neutral zone? We don’t enforce that anymore. And then obviously even jumping the count. So listen, this it’s hard to watch, but certainly there’s a lot at play here. It’s not the only story line in that game. The Eagles, by the way, the only team in the sport without a passing touchdown on the season. We will dive more deeply into what their offense needs to get right as we continue today. Randy will have thoughts on that. And this there’s Matt Stafford getting ready to go. He’s had a big weekend. He was there to support his buddy Clayton Kershaw the other night. We talked to his star receiver Devonte Adams earlier. We’ll see what the Rams have ready for Philadelphia. And Carson Wentz making history today.
