TOM BRADY SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM FOX AS HE RUNS THE LAS VEGAS RAIDERS

There is no NFL integrity when Goodell allows Brady to broadcast a playoff game of the Detroit Lions — whose offensive coordinator is wooed by Brady — when viewers see a revolting conflict of interest

The commissioner should be humiliated. The owners of 31 NFL franchises should be mortified. What is the point of discussing integrity in the league when Tom Brady, who illegally deflated balls, has a headset in the Fox Sports booth while trying to hire a head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders?

Saturday night, 35 million or so viewers will watch Brady and Kevin Burkhardt describe a playoff game between the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders. Many people will ask, “What the hell?” — or worse. Except for a time slot in Michigan, Brady is focused on trying to hire Detroit’s offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, to coach the team he owns. This will prompt Washington fans to scream he’s on the take for the Lions, with fans in cities that covet Johnson — say, Chicago and Jacksonville — asking why he deserves such a revolting conflict of journalistic interest.

He owns five percent of the Raiders personally and owns 10 percent with his partner, Tom Wagner. When the deal was approved in October, Brady sounded like a proprietor and said, “Throughout my career, I've learned that at its core, football is a game of teamwork, resilience, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. The Raiders franchise, and the city of Las Vegas embody these same values, and I'm honored to become part of that story. I’m eager to contribute to the organization, honoring the Raiders' rich tradition while finding every possible opportunity to improve our offering to fans … and most importantly, WIN football games.”

The minute Brady finished mushing, Roger Goodell should have ordered him away from the network microphone and ended his broadcast career. Instead, he played the “Brady Is Bigger Than Us” ballgame. “It's great that Tom Brady wants to invest in the NFL. He cares deeply about this game,” the boss said. “He believes in its future, and I think that's just a signal of that.” Months later, Goodell realizes Brady is an average commentator at best and has become a bigger public-relations pain. Did anyone believe Brady would slip into a Tony Romo or Cris Collinsworth role with his $375 million contract at Fox? The minute a team made him an offer — Mark Davis at Allegiant Stadium — he would say yes and forget the perception that his game calls are clean and unbiased. Never mind that Brady thinks he isn’t rooting for Johnson. People who watch at home think otherwise.

It reached the point where Johnson — trying to prepare an offense for a Super Bowl while being virtually interviewed by the Raiders, Bears, Jaguars and Patriots, who hired Mike Vrabel — said he wasn’t sure if he could speak with Brady. “I know nothing of that nature,” he told the media Wednesday. “I met him at the Packers game on the field. I saw him on the field for a second. That’s the first time I’ve ever met him. That’s it.”

Chances are, Brady was seriously involved in the interview. “This is Tom’s show now,” a source told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He was involved in firing head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco because, after all, he IS the general manager.

“Huge,” is how Davis describes Brady’s duties in the front office.

Thus, Goodell should call Fox — embroiled in a scandal where Skip Bayless and others are sued on 14 counts of workplace harassment and misconduct — and tell Lachlan Murdoch and Eric Shanks that Brady has been benched. Greg Olsen is a much better analyst who has no personal interest in Johnson. Viewers want to watch postseason football and don’t really care if Tom Brady is broadcasting the game.

So let the man who runs the Raiders run the Raiders.

Or, we will start asking Goodell about his own integrity.

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.