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The NFL put its position on Tom Brady in writing this month, and the wording is worth reading closely. League spokesman Brian McCarthy told Mark Maske of Front Office Sports that Brady may attend production meetings virtually, has no access to practice facilities or practices, and may conduct interviews with football personnel and players outside team facilities. The same parameters now apply to Troy Aikman, who has taken a role with the Miami Dolphins while continuing to call games for ESPN. Every one of those restrictions governs their television job. That is the gap Mike Florio has spent two seasons pointing at, and he returned to it this week. “The NFL never should have allowed it, ever. And there’s also a sense that everyone is gonna be fine with it until the Raiders become a powerhouse, then people are gonna be running around with their hair on fire saying, ‘Oh, we gotta do something about this.’ Well, you had your chance. You had your chance, and you let Tom Brady double dip.” Brady holds a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders and works as Fox’s lead analyst, an arrangement that drew broad shrugs until he appeared on camera during a Monday night game against the Chargers sitting with Raiders coaches, wearing a headset and watching a tablet. Brady answered his critics in his own newsletter, writing that the point where his roles intersect is not a conflict “despite what the paranoid and distrustful might believe.” Tom Brady Should Have Never Been Allowed To Have Management Over The Raiders. Per, @MikeFlorioPFT “The NFL never should have allowed it, ever. And there’s also a sense that everyone is gonna be fine with it until the Raiders become a powerhouse, then people are gonna be running… pic.twitter.com/S0N1TthX7y — SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) August 19, 2026 What the Raiders have actually said about Brady’s involvement The people running the building have been careful. General manager John Spytek told Kay Adams on Up & Adams that Brady has empowered him and head coach Klint Kubiak to run the day-to-day operation as they see fit. Kubiak said at the annual league meeting that he and Brady text almost every day. Those two statements sit uneasily together, and the Kubiak hire is where they meet. Florio devoted a segment on Tuesday’s PFT PM to asking if Brady’s booth access helped the Raiders evaluate Kubiak before they hired him out of Seattle following Super Bowl LX. A broadcaster spends the season in production meetings with coordinators around the league, which is exactly the kind of exposure a search committee would pay for. The quarterback question is the more immediate one. Fernando Mendoza, the first overall pick of the 2026 draft, went 10 of 16 for 97 yards and a touchdown in his preseason debut against Arizona, and Kirk Cousins remains the starter. Florio suggested on the Aug. 14 edition of PFT Live that Mendoza may be sitting because Brady wants him to sit, a theory that would be unremarkable coming from any other minority owner and is not unremarkable coming from this one. Nobody outside Las Vegas has complained loudly, because the Raiders have not been good. Should Kubiak and Mendoza turn that around, the complaints will arrive from thirty-one other buildings, and the restrictions on the books will still only cover where Brady is allowed to stand on a Sunday. Related Readings: Cleveland Browns have now missed on two veteran pass rushers in three weeks Ryan Clark makes strong case for Jayden Daniels that LSU fans should hear Ryan Day makes an unusual scheduling decision with the Michigan game in mind Packers CB Keisean Nixon says he feels ‘punished’ amid unexpected starting competition