The Tom Brady effect: Raiders once wanted it like a QB – they have something much more

Tom Brady plays shy. It has been for some time.

During the Super Bowl LVIII, working as Fox analyst, Brady said that his role as a minority owner of Las Vegas raiders “is just much more a long -term role and behind the scenes.” Cited on the team’s website four months later, Brady continued to minimize his position and recalled that the owner Mark Davis, the managing director John Spytek and the coach Pete Carroll remain the main daily decision -makers.

“Well, I’m just a limited partner, so Mark is the boss,” said Brady. “And then Pete does his job and Spy does his job, and I think we trust them to make the right decisions. I am there like a large resonance box for everything they want. ”

As much as Brady works to frame his capacity as raiders as a passive, the truth is that his fingerprints are everywhere in the franchise, according to team sources and league. Since the NFL approved its acquisition of a 5% participation in the team last October, its impact was felt at each stage of the path.

When the 2024 season was finished, Brady helped Davis make decisions to draw coach Antonio Pierce and managing director Tom Telesco. From there, he directly contacted the Coach and GM candidates and was on the job panel for each position. The result: Carroll and Spytek.

“He was fully involved,” Carroll said at their introductory press conference in January. “This is his opportunity to put his stamp on a franchise, and we are therefore delighted to represent this. … Mark did an incredible job to understand how to formulate this plan so that we can all come together.”

Carroll continued to say working with Brady was a “unique opportunity”. With the new owners of Tom Wagner minorities, Egon Durban and Michael Meldman, Brady has pressure for a bigger investment in football operations. Brady was involved in several meetings with coaches staff and the front office to exhibit the quarter-back plan this offseason, which led to the acquisition of Geno Smith. The presence of Brady during meetings, practices, melee and pre-season games since has not been exactly for fun.

“He is a very curious person,” said Spytek in February. “I would be a kind of idiot if I did not listen to what he thought of things.”

Nothing in Brady’s stature with the raiders is a minor – and he has never been supposed to be.

“I want Tom to have a huge voice, without a doubt,” said Davis in December. “This is part of the construction of the organization’s infrastructure … A footballer on this side who is not a coach or a managing director. He is someone who can supervise the whole. I believe that Tom, to come, will be the person who can do it. ”

Davis brought Brady on board on board last year to help create a new raid football era. When the raiders start their 2025 season on Sunday against the old Brady team, the New England Patriots, we will get our first indication to find out if it will be better.

Davis sold 25.5% of raiders and delegates a large amount of power within the organization last year. Part of the motivation: humility.

Since he became a control owner in 2011, the results on the ground have been massively disappointing. During this period, the Raiders did not make the playoffs twice, they have no victory in the playoffs, and they traveled five GM and seven head coaches.

Given these results, Davis looked inside. After reflecting, he recognized that the Raiders front office did not have the football knowledge should succeed.

“The only thing I know is what I don’t know, and I’m going to surround myself with people who know these things. And I will give them the opportunity to do their job,” said Davis in January. “I give them a vision and goals, and we are talking about these things, but the results are what is talking.”

Why Brady? It is a nuptial parade which dates from more than half a decade. When Brady became a free agent in 2019, Davis wanted to sign him. Instead, coach Jon Gruden rather chose to stick to Derek Carr. Brady then joined the Tampa Bay Bucs and immediately won a Super Bowl.

“He was supposed to be here in 2020,” said Davis about Brady on an internal team podcast, “Raiders: Talk of the Nation”, earlier this week. “This is where our relationship started.”

Davis remained in touch with the agent of Brady, Don Yee, and said that he would still like Brady the quarter to be part of the organization at a given time. It almost happened in 2023, but Brady decided to retire instead.

In the end, Brady and Davis would connect with business. Later that year, Davis sold in Brady a minority participation in the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. Then, in 2024, Davis agreed to sell Brady a piece of the raiders. In his mind, Brady would give raiders what he thought they were missing.

“I went with big and big footballers in my lifetime. You talk about my father (Al Davis). You talk about John Madden. You talk about Tom Flores. You talk about Ron Wolf,” said Davis. “All these people helped me along the way. So I know what to do. I think we have the infrastructure now in this organization to enter the future. ”

Carroll spent the 2024 season out of training, but he always knew he wanted to come back. While he weighed potential opportunities for him to achieve this in 2025, he realized that the presence of Brady changed his way of seeing the raiders.

“The whole image of this opportunity has changed,” said Carroll in March. “The expertise he brings, the unique character. I did not know how it would be to work. I am just in competition against him and I listened to him over the years, I had great admiration and respect and all that. But he is really founded in his mentality, and that is what makes him so precious for us.”

Brady was college teammate with Spytek in Michigan. Spytek was also a BUCS manager during the years of Brady, so they already knew how to work with each other. At least so far, the problems have not emerged among the Carroll, Spytek and Brady triumvirate regarding the dynamics of power.

Although Brady is not based in Las Vegas, he communicates with Spytek, Carroll and the coordinator of well-being Alex Guerrero daily, and he made several trips on site when he is justified. Carroll and Spytek welcomed it.

“He keeps a trace of everything,” said Carroll. “We are talking about regularly. He is very close to John, and they have an excellent relationship.… We can add the wealth he offers. ”

Tom Brady played a decisive role in bringing Pete Carroll and Geno Smith to raiders. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

Brady’s interactions with players have not been so frequent, but he delivered a speech to the list during the training camp. And earlier in the offseason, he also welcomed Smith at his home in Florida. They spent about an hour talking about football, life and mentality.

“It’s Tom Brady. He’s a guy I idolized and adapted, and I think he is doing things the right way,” said Smith in April. “You understand why he is who he is immediately. He takes everything extremely seriously. He is a diligent worker, and he believes in hard work. And I think we are aligned in this way, and I want to be a sponge.”

When the raiders take the ground against the patriots in Foxboro, Mass., Brady will not be there. He will be in Landover, Maryland, calling for the match between Washington commanders and New York Giants for Fox.

With the current regular season, Brady is now focusing on his duties as a broadcaster. There is no other choice than to trust Carroll, Spytek and everyone in the field.

“We are trying to do a good job to keep it really connected so that it can really be at the head to give advice and help us make decisions in a representative way of property,” said Carroll.

Brady’s contract with Fox takes place until 2033. Whatever his career in broadcasting, he intends to that his post with raiders continue longer. In a statement published in the fall, Brady said he was planning to maintain his participation “for the rest of my life”.

(Top Photo: Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images)