Tom Brady may no longer shred NFL defenses every Sunday, be he is still a story.

The seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback has been subject to scrutiny this week after being seen sitting in the Las Vegas Raiders coaching booth wearing a headset during their defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night.

Brady is a minority owner of the Raiders while also being the chief NFL analyst on Fox, with his broadcasting role granting him access to production meetings with opposition coaches and players.

The NFL said Brady was not breaking any rules by being in the coaches’ booth on Monday night, though the situation has raised questions over a potential conflict of interest.

“He treads a fine line between being an NFL owner and also calling games for Fox, because he gets to watch film,” said Sky Sports NFL’s Neil Reynolds on Inside the Huddle.

“He hasn’t been in a ton of production meetings over the last couple of years, coaches are maybe very careful about what they tell him, but for example he’s going to call the game that we’ve got on Sunday, the Bears-Cowboys game and the following week the Raiders play the Bears. So is Tom telling the Raiders everything that’s going on with the Bears?”

“Ben Johnson, the Bears head coach, said he’s not worried about it. Sean Payton, Denver’s head coach, said he’s not sweating about it.”

It is a discussion that arose last year as Brady navigated his first season in the broadcasting booth.

The NFL adjusted its rules around Brady during the offseason, allowing him to join production meetings virtually while prohibiting him from visiting other team facilities as a broadcaster.

“Brady offers so much value to whatever organisation he’s a part of whether it’s the Raiders, whether its broadcasting, or Birmingham City, from a coach’s perspective there’s nothing that is really being said that he wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out himself or to see on film,” said Sky Sports NFL’s Phoebe Schecter.

“And so is it really that big of a deal? There might be some conversations about potential injuries, but genuinely Tom Brady has enough contacts in the league that if he really wanted to find something out about an opponent, he could absolutely do that.

“I can understand why people might be a little bit hesitant, especially the Broncos who are in the same division as well. But I just, I think we’re making more noise about it from a media perspective than anything else because we’ve just not seen it before and we’ve never seen how that operates.”

“But he’s still a professional at the end of the day.”

Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly insists he and Brady do not discuss game plans, while former Raiders head coach Antonio Piece suggested it was ‘foolish’ to believe the former New England Patriots quarterback would not share ‘tidbits’ learned in a production meeting.

“The media has its underwear in a twist about this because there are conflicts and you could potentially see conflicts from the outside if we’re not in the meeting rooms,” Reynolds added. “So now I’m starting to think, well, if head coaches aren’t bothered, then we don’t need to be bothered.

“It doesn’t seem like fans are outraged by it. This definitely seems like a media thing. And I do think it’s a tricky line because I think Brady is a competitor. And Brady, if he found out about a high ankle sprain for a Bears cornerback, he’s 100 per cent I think going to tell Geno Smith to go after him.

“So I think that’s what he would do, but I don’t think it’s got to that stage. And the other point is Brady was watching all the film. That’s where he’s gonna know stuff. And he’s watching the same film that every coach is watching.”

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