The Las Vegas Raiders are in the market for a new head coach and, by all accounts, minority owner Tom Brady will be involved in that search.
While Mark Davis remains the main decision-maker for the franchise, it stands to reason that the seven-time Super Bowl champion will have some input. The big question is just how much that input is taken into account.
Given that the Raiders haven’t had a winning season since 2021 and haven’t won a playoff game since going to the Super Bowl in 2002, it stands to reason that some fresh perspective could be helpful.
With that in mind, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith thinks that not only should Brady have a say, but he should actually be the deciding voice in the room.
Smith joined the What the Football with Suzy Shuster & Amy Trask podcast Monday and weighed in with his thoughts on how the coaching search should go.
“I think that the city of Las Vegas and Raider Nation is excited and intrigued to find out what kind of impact is Tom Brady going to have,” said Smith. “There is nothing about him that gives you the impression that he’s just somebody that’s in it for the money. He’s a seven-time Super Bowl champion. He signed a contract to do color commentary for Fox Sports on Sundays a couple of years ago. It was ten years, it was 375 million dollars, and he still waited to get in some practice sessions and master the art of what he was doing before he went and decided to do it full-time.
“And that Tom Brady is now in a position as a part-owner where he’ll be a voice in the room and he gets an opportunity to evaluate talent. Well, with everything else he’s done has been that of a winner. Why would anybody else have say over him when it comes to picking personnel or picking who the next head coach should be?
“I gotta be honest with you. If I’m Mark Davis, I let Tom Brady make the call. I know that might not be in him because he is the son of Al Davis, god rest his soul. But I will tell you, I’d strongly consider deferring to Tom Brady to make the decision about who that next dude is gonna be. Because whoever that person is going to be, you’re going to support it until there’s evidence to contradict your support. Just because it’s Tom Brady.”
We’re not sure if Smith owns stock in Tom Brady or what, but that’s quite the bold suggestion given he has been a minority owner for all of three months. While he’s been successful in many endeavors, his experience in selecting front-office and coaching personnel remains extremely limited.
Smith is also perhaps being a bit generous in saying that Brady has mastered the art of broadcasting in his rookie season. Opinions vary on that, to say the least.
By all accounts, the former quarterback will have a say in that coach-hiring decision, though the specific extent to which he’s involved remains to be seen. The situation further deepens the strange conflict that exists as Brady gets set to call NFL playoff games populated with great coaches whom he might have his eye on. Viewers will be sure to note whenever he praises a certain assistant coach or seemingly goes out of his way to admire a gameplan.
Is he doing so as a broadcaster? Or is he doing so as someone with a vested interest in hiring that person away? Like so many aspects of his current standing, it creates a lot of questions and tampering concerns.
Then again, none of that may matter to the NFL brass, especially if the next Raiders head coach makes good and brings Las Vegas some hardware. Besides, the NFL great might decide this is where his true calling is instead of the broadcast booth.