In what has been a whirlwind couple of hours for the Las Vegas Raiders, Tom Brady has now been approved by the NFL owners as a limited partner with a 5% stake.
Tom Brady has now been officially approved by the NFL owners as a limited partner of the #Raiders.
With his 5% stake official (but a total purchase of 10% by Brady and his partner), his playing career is now over. pic.twitter.com/ykDwKH2f5M
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 15, 2024
Additionally, this means that Brady — the seven-time Super Bowl champion with stints in New England and Tampa Bay — will officially be done playing despite numerous rumors of a potential comeback after retirement.
With a total value of $6.7 billion, the Raiders rank seventh on the Forbes Teams Valuations List. At just a 5% stake in the Raiders, Brady does not have much commanding power when it comes to franchise operations — that will still belong to majority owner Mark Davis.
For Brady, this move is ultimately just a way of making passive income and a stepping stone to potentially becoming a majority owner one day.
Fans React to Tom Brady Becoming Owner
Many fans across the league have noted the irony of Brady becoming a partial owner of one of the league’s worst quarterback situations.
Gotta be the first time in history an owner is better than the starting quarterback
— Football Analysis (@FBallAnalysisYT) October 15, 2024
In reality, it is not too far-fetched. Although the 23-year pro is 47 years old, Brady is just two years removed from a 2022 season where he led the league in completions and attempts while throwing for 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Comparatively, starter Aidan O’Connell has fewer career passing yards, touchdowns, completions and attempts than Brady has in his final season in 2022. In defense of O’Connell, the Purdue product has played in just 17 games to date.
Although it would be going far and beyond the requirements for Brady, it would be rather cool to see the future Hall of Famer pass down wisdom and help coach the quarterbacks on the roster. However, Brady will likely just enjoy retirement in the broadcast booth while racking up his dividends of the $779 million revenue share brought in by the Raiders.
Tom Brady: Adaptive Broadcaster
While there is no end to Brady’s broadcasting career, as a partial owner of the Raiders there will be heavy restrictions on what he can and cannot do.
Fox is paying him $375 million over 10 years to be part of their NFL broadcast team, but now Brady will not be able to enter another team’s facility, watch practice or attend any production meetings like every other sports broadcaster does.
Furthermore, Brady will likely need to be very particular with the ways he talks about officials during his broadcasts. All formal official complaints can go through Troy Vincent, the executive vice president of football operations, but if Brady were to be on-air trashing a referee or another team he could see punishment from the league.
With Brady and Kevin Burkhardt getting the marquee matchups for Fox, it is unlikely Brady will be in a situation where he has the potential to commentate a Raiders game. However, over the next decade, one would assume that the Raiders will have a primetime match-up.
In that situation, it would be under the assumption that Brady would step out of the booth for the Raiders game and be reassigned to another Fox broadcast.
As of now, expect Brady to continue in his shaky start to a broadcasting career — just be mindful when he is hovering around criticisms of referees or seems slightly unprepared during the broadcast.