Tom Brady has been a lightning rod for the Las Vegas Raiders ever since he purchased a minority stake in the iconic franchise. His role is ambiguous, perhaps intentionally so, which leaves a lot up to interpretation or speculation. The amount of influence he has, or lack thereof, may never be known.
But he's proven to be more hands-on with the Raiders lately, which can be contentious, considering not everyone is a fan of him being both a broadcaster for FOX Sports and a minority owner of a team. The worry is that Brady, who hasn't always followed the NFL rules, could bend them once again.
And it hasn't really been an issue yet, as nobody could accuse Las Vegas of using Brady's privileged information to give them a competitive edge. After all, the Raiders are 5-25 since he was officially welcomed aboard. But could he, in a roundabout way, help Las Vegas by helping out other teams?
That's what everyone seems to be accusing Brady of now, even if he wasn't implicitly named.
Tom Brady may or may not have been mystery man helping Mike Macdonald before Super Bowl
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald recently spoke on The Dan Patrick Show, and Macdonald was asked by Patrick to name some people he got pre-Super Bowl advice from that might be surprising.
Macdonald named John Harbaugh, his old employer, as someone who helped him out leading up to the game against the New England Patriots. Then, he said this, which has caused somewhat of a controversey and lead to a whole heck of a lot of speculation:
"Probably can't mention one guy [that I talked to] that really helped us out that had some conflict of interest."
Conflict of interest, you say? While Raider Nation, by and large, supports having Brady in the building, at least as a sounding board, "conflict of interest" is practically Brady's middle name. Now, Macdonald didn't name Brady; this is pure speculation. But if you read the comments, I'm not the only one.
Of course, this comes just days after Brady was named as someone who talks to Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton at times. Brady's name is always embroiled in something, and if we look at the facts of the situation, it makes a lot of sense that he could be this mystery man.
First of all, Macdonald shut down the idea that it was Bill Belichick. So, who else would know Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in the world better than Brady? Who else could help Macdonald as much as he is asserting? And why couldn't he name him?
Clearly, Macdonald had no quarrels about naming Harbaugh, another active NFL head coach. Naming someone else wouldn't be a conflict of interest, so who else could it be, other than Brady? Macdonald is a defensive coach and probably wanted the keys to the Patriots' offense. Brady has them.
It also makes sense that Brady would be in contact with Macdonald or others in Seattle around that time, given the Raiders' looming hire of Klint Kubiak. So, if Brady really did help out Macdonald by spilling some of McDaniels' tendencies or terminologies, he did Kubiak a favor before hiring him.
Kubiak's offense wasn't a world-beater in that Super Bowl, so the Seahawks slowing down New England's offense was the key to victory before Seattle figured things out on offense. Perhaps this was Brady's way of endearing himself to the building he was about to mine a sacred resource from.
Again, Brady wasn't named. But it stands to reason that Macdonald could have named just about anybody else in the sport, and it wouldn't have been a big deal. Brady hasn't exactly been loyal to the Patriots since his departure, either, so he could have been trying to stick it to his former franchise.
Let's just say that Brady did help Kubiak win a Super Bowl... can he do it again?
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