Fox Sports executive Brad Zager blasted critics of Tom Brady’s alleged conflict of interest calling this Saturday’s divisional round game between the Lions and Commanders while having part ownership of the Raiders.
Brady, who will be in the booth alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt in Detroit, is part of the Raiders’ decision-making team that is considering Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson for the franchise’s head coaching vacancy.
Zager, the network’s president of programming and production, told The Athletic it was “ridiculous” to claim Brady would be compromised by his duties off the microphone with the Raiders.
“To me, the questioning of someone’s integrity to say there is a conflict of interest is ridiculous and that’s a shame,” Zager said, per the outlet.
Zager drew comparisons to ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who played at Ohio State, and Fox’s Joe Davis, who calls national MLB games for the network in addition to his local play-by-play job with the Dodgers.
“Is there a conflict of interest Monday night when Kirk Herbstreit calls Ohio State in the national championship game?” Zager said. “Was there a conflict of interest of Joe Davis calling the Dodgers in the World Series?
“For somebody to say there’s a conflict of interest in that Tom Brady can’t go in a booth and call a Lions game because the possibility of a Raiders coaching search could include, maybe people from Detroit, maybe from Washington, maybe from any team — since they haven’t hired anyone yet — is questioning his integrity. It’s questioning his professionalism. I just don’t understand it on any level.”
The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback is in his first season as Fox’s No. 1 color analyst.
In October, Brady was officially approved as a part-owner of the Raiders.
