The Detroit Lions went 15-2 during the 2024 regular season and will host the Washington Commanders in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs this weekend. FOX is putting the network's A-team on the game, assigning Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady to broadcast the postseason contest. And it has the NFL world buzzing.
As has been well-covered this season Brady became a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2024. The rules governing owners' conduct in regards to negative public comments made towards the league appear to strongly conflict with Brady's job as a color commentator for Fox Sports. However, it doesn't seem that anybody involved cares very much and the future Hall of Fame quarterback has called games all year, occasionally criticizing officiating and opposing teams alike without any flags being raised.
Circumstances have changed with the calendar flipping to 2025, though. From all appearances Brady is taking a very active role in helping the Raiders find a new head coach after principal owner Mark Davis fired Antonio Pierce at season's end. One of the team's top candidates is Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who interviewed virtually with Vegas last week in part because Brady himself reportedly "implored" Johnson to take the interview after vouching for him with Raiders brass.
Now Brady will be covering Johnson's opening postseason game. That doesn't just mean he'll be singing the coordinator's praises in front of roughly 30 million viewers, as he did when calling Lions games earlier this season. It means Brady will likely be speaking with Johnson during production meetings and generally gleaning insight into how Johnson thinks—standard procedure for a television analyst, who will use that to make informed comments on the broadcast. But that information is tremendously valuable for Brady in his other role as a voice in the Raiders' decision-making process, too.
Brady getting to spend a bunch of extra time with Johnson, who sounds like his favorite head coaching candidate, as part of his job as an analyst is going to be talked about all week. Because it is notable. No other team interested in Johnson will receive the same opportunity. It's the biggest, most obvious conflict of interest between Brady the owner and Brady the analyst yet.
Something to monitor as the week goes on and kickoff nears.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tom Brady Will Call Lions' Playoff Game as Raiders Consider Ben Johnson for HC Position.