Welcome back to this month's edition of everyone's favorite offseason game: What Does Tom Brady Do?
Ever since Brady came to Vegas in ... whatever ownership role it technically is ... Raiders fans have waited with slightly-inauthentic anticipation to learn what it is, exactly, that Brady does in his role. It's not that we're skeptical, more-so just ... curious. He's not the owner, he's not the GM, he's certainly not the head coach – outside of his appearances at Las Vegas golf pro-ams, it's been a confusing first couple of the Tom Brady Raiders era.
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But that's what Albert Breer is for. Breer exists to do the laborious work of 'networking at fancy NFL events' so he can, on a weekly basis, answer fake mailbag questions about the inner workings of the league. It's a thankless job, but someone's gotta do it. His latest Raiders intel makes you start to understand why he's paid the big bucks.
Tom Brady got the Raiders to spend money, maybe he is the GOAT
"Brady promised to coaching candidates in January that with the presence of his fellow new limited partners, whom he helped bring in, would materially change how the traditionally cash-poor Raiders would operate. With Brady’s business partner Tom Wagner, Silver Lake CEO (and Manchester City board member) Egon Durban and Discovery Land founder Michael Meldman in the fold, the Raiders have delivered on that, maybe most notably in paying $6 million per year to pry offensive coordinator Chip Kelly from Ohio State ... It’s well-established that Brady’s priority would be bringing in players of high football character, who have the kind of competitive edge and work ethic that Brady did. That meshes with Carroll and Spyek’s beliefs, which helps color the decisions to hire them, and it was all over the Raiders’ draft class. So, no, Brady’s not there every day. But, intrinsically, his presence is."
I originally started this blog with the idea of hitting the whole 'no one can tell us what Brady does' angle with way too much snark, but to be totally honest, I was kinda legitimately floored by Breer's reporting. Brady is [re-reads] bankrolling the Raiders? That feels like a big deal? And obviously it's not all of his money, but that's a much bigger deal than 'Brady finds college players who have that dawg in them.'
If Brady really is bringing in people flush with cash to operate the Raiders and still serving as a sort of celebrity ambassador for free agents/draftees that just need a little more convincing, that's pretty significant. At the very least, it's interesting. Fine – at the very, very least, it's useful. At least it's not Josh McDaniels.