'Where's the conflict?': NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks on Tom Brady's dual roles

Vincent Bonsignore, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sep 25, 2025

Published in Football

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LAS VEGAS — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell chimed in on the concerns over Tom Brady’s dual roles as a Raiders minority owner and Fox broadcaster in an interview published Thursday.

“Where’s the conflict?” Goodell told Alex Sherman of CNBC.com. “He’s not hanging around in the facilities. We don’t allow that.”

Brady is not permitted to be in other teams’ buildings for practices and production meetings because of his ties with the Raiders. It’s one of a handful of restrictions other owners put in place when he bought into the team in October 2024.

Brady can still talk to players and coaches virtually to prepare for his broadcasts.

The fact he has access to other teams at all has raised concerns about a conflict of interest. There are worries he could use any information gleaned from those meetings to help the Raiders.

Brady, for example, called the Bears’ win over the Cowboys last week. The Raiders host Chicago at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.

Goodell pushed back on those fears. He pointed out players and coaches control what they choose to tell Brady or any other broadcaster.

“Teams have the right to say whatever they want to. They don’t have to disclose any information if they think it’s a conflict of interest,” Goodell told CNBC. “Teams don’t need to say anything. Sometimes they don’t say anything to somebody who’s not a minority owner. We get a lot of former players that are in (game prep meetings) that are close to their former teams. I think our teams are pretty smart about saying, ‘I’m not sharing something with him.’ ”

Trying to avoid a major fall

A two-game losing streak like the Raiders are experiencing now could have set the team into a prolonged slump in years past.

That’s something the team is looking to avoid.

Quarterback Geno Smith said after Sunday’s loss to the Commanders that “nothing’s going sideways.” He reiterated that stance Wednesday, saying the Raiders have enough experience in the locker room and the coaching staff to bounce back.

“I think we have a great coaching staff and a bunch of guys that are really just focused on getting better every single day,” Smith said. “And I think if you take that approach to it, if you just focus on getting better, you block out the outside noise, you don’t think about expectations — because that could be to your detriment — you’ll have a shot to do some great things.”