Tom Brady Has a New Role in His Latest Super Bowl Appearance

The former quarterback has major influence in the NFL even though he’s now a broadcaster.

AP/Jerome Miron, file
Tom Brady looks on from the broadcast booth during an NFL football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints, September 15, 2024, at Arlington, Texas. AP/Jerome Miron, file

A powerful Super Bowl commercial tackling the issue of hate speech features a New England Patriots legend, Tom Brady, and a rapper, Snoop Dogg. The 30-second spot further highlights Mr. Brady’s ongoing influence despite the possibility he could be surpassed as the greatest quarterback of all time.

Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism released the commercial “No Reason to Hate” on Monday. In the 30-second spot, Snoop Dogg and Mr. Brady speak like they hate each other because of their differences.  The commercial ends with a message, “The reasons for hate are as stupid as they sound,” and Snoop Dogg telling Mr. Brady: “I hate that things are so bad that we have to do a commercial about it.”

“Me, too,” Mr. Brady says as the two walk off camera.

The poignant message of the commercial conceived by the Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, should be well-received and add to Mr. Brady’s continued impact on the sport despite his retirement two years ago. While others debate whether the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, is the GOAT in waiting, Mr. Brady is proving he’s still The Man.

The Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Superdome on Sunday. If Kansas City wins, Mr. Mahomes will have accomplished two things no other quarterback in NFL history has done: win three consecutive Super Bowls and win four Super Bowls by age 30.

A win will put Mr. Mahomes in the conversation as the greatest quarterback of all-time, a status that belongs to Mr. Brady, who won seven Super Bowls during his career, six with the Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Rob Gronkowski, Mr. Brady’s teammate at New England and Tampa Bay, suggested Mr. Mahomes still has some catching up to do. “He’s going to have to win about five or six championships to get in that conversation of the greatest ahead of Tom Brady,” Mr. Gronkowski told Fox.

Mr. Brady could lobby for himself if he wanted to. He’ll call his first Super Bowl on Sunday as part of the 10-year, $375 million contract he signed with Fox in March 2022 before he unretired to play one more season.

Mr. Brady, who won his first Super Bowl in the Superdome in February 2002, took a gap year after officially retiring in February 2023. He began as the network’s lead analyst this season.

On Sunday, his profile will be almost as high as that of Mr. Mahomes. An estimated 120 million viewers will be tuning in to see if Mr. Brady is as clutch behind a microphone as he was with a football.

The future first-ballot Hall of Famer has acknowledged his rookie year as a broadcaster has been a learning experience. “The god’s honest truth is that, like with anything complicated, the key to comfort and competence is just more reps,” Mr. Brady wrote in his newsletter, 199.

Mr. Brady will rely on his new Super Bowl team to get him through the broadcast. The play-by-play announcer, Kevin Burkhardt, and the sideline reporters, Tom Rinaldi and Erin Andrews, are all veterans of big events.

Mr. Brady’s access as a broadcaster was severely limited after he purchased a 5 to 10 percent stake in the Las Vegas Raiders. He was prohibited from team facilities, players, coaches, and other franchise personnel. Nor could he attend production meetings.

While other announcers like to relay what they saw at practice or what players and coaches had to say, Mr. Brady has relied on his research and own football IQ to commentate on games.

“If an NFL playbook is a Mount Everest of information, a single NFL broadcast is the entire Himalayan mountain chain—there isn’t enough time, energy or oxygen to cover it all,” Mr. Brady wrote in the newsletter. “That, for me, has been the other, exciting part of the challenge: figuring out how to clearly communicate as much valuable information as possible in the short window between snaps.”

Raiders fans are hoping once Mr. Brady is done with the Super Bowl, he’ll help rebuild the franchise into a winner.

Las Vegas announced on Monday the hiring of Chip Kelly as the new offensive coordinator under new head coach Pete Carroll. Mr. Brady was said to be involved in the decision-making. Mr. Kelly, a former head coach at Oregon and with the Eagles, was the offensive coordinator at national champion Ohio State this past season. He will reportedly earn $6 million a year, making him the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL. 

The Raiders have the no. 6 pick in the upcoming draft and will be looking to add a quarterback.


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