NFL, owners are forcing Tom Brady into his first difficult call

NFL owners really don’t want Tom Brady to be part of their club.

That’s the only way to read the restrictions the league is imposing on Brady the broadcaster related to his attempts to become Brady the part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Which is still several months away from getting approval, mind you, if it happens at all. But the league is effectively boxing Brady in, forcing him to make a choice between his massive current paycheck or the potential “cachet” of being a minority owner of an NFL team — and leaving no doubt which one they prefer.

ESPN was the first to report that Brady won’t be allowed to watch another team’s practices or sit in on production meetings with the coaching staff, in person or virtually. That seems to be pretty standard stuff. NFL executives and coaches are some of the most paranoid people on the planet when it comes to competitive advantages — a lost playbook can cost a player up to $14,650 — and the idea of someone with a vested interest in another team having access to even the most mundane details would trigger a DEFCON 1 alert.

To not even be allowed to enter another team’s facility, though? That seems personal. Which, given who’s involved, isn’t a surprise.

Brady might be the greatest quarterback in NFL history, winner of seven Super Bowl titles and three regular-season MVP awards. He’s also a potential PR dream for both the league and its broadcast partner Fox, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer who is good-looking, funny and as adept at social media as he was throwing TDs.

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But the NFL has had two massive cheating scandals in the last 20 years and Brady’s been involved in both.

He served a four-game suspension as part of “Deflategate,” though he’s always denied complicity in any actual wrongdoing. As New England’s quarterback, he stood to benefit the most from “Spygate,” in which the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick were both handed six-figure fines for stealing opponents’ signals.

That team owners don’t trust Brady, even after all these years, might seem petty. But there’s more than a few owners who are still salty about the scandals, and the league’s perceived favoritism of the Patriots during Brady’s tenure, and they’re not ready to let bygones be bygones.  

The truest sign that Brady isn’t welcome as an owner, though, is the decree that he can’t criticize game officials and other clubs.

In other words, he can’t do his job. One Fox is paying him a whopping $375 million over 10 years to do.

It wouldn’t be appropriate for Brady to take unwarranted potshots at the owner of, say, the Kansas City Chiefs. Or at the crew chief in a particular game. It wouldn’t be appropriate for Troy Aikman, Tony Romo or any other big-name analyst, either.

But the job of an analyst — the good ones, at least — is to offer unvarnished assessments of what’s happening on and off the field. Fox and the other networks don’t pay guys like Brady, Romo and Aikman the big bucks just for their names. They pay them for their ability to take viewers behind the scenes, to peel the curtain back on why things on the field are happening, and to do it straightforwardly.

If an officiating crew botches a call that leads to a game-winning touchdown, is Brady supposed to ignore that? One of the biggest debates in recent seasons is how far the league has gone to protect the quarterback. Will Brady be able to weigh in on those types of calls and provide his very worthy insight?

If Russell Wilson is not a good fit in Pittsburgh, as he wasn’t in Denver, can Brady address that? If No. 1 pick Caleb Williams has growing pains with the Chicago Bears, does Brady have to dance around it? If the Dallas Cowboys skid into December at 5-7, is Brady supposed to pretend that Mike McCarthy isn’t on the hot seat?

Viewers want someone who is informative, not a glorified cheerleader. It’s why Aikman has lasted as long as he has and Drew Brees was out after a year. And there’s no way Brady can be an effective analyst, or give Fox its money’s worth, while also adhering to the NFL’s restrictions.

Which is the point.

Brady can be an analyst or he can be a part-owner of the Raiders, but he can’t be both. The NFL has already made that call.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.