Getty Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis.
The Las Vegas Raiders turned heads when ESPN reported that Tom Brady was trying to buy an ownership stake in the team. Since then, things have apparently gone smoothly as owner Mark Davis and Brady have reached an agreement. The news was confirmed by Davis and now the sides just have to wait to get approved by the NFL.
“We have come to an agreement for Tom Brady to become a partner in the Raiders and we have submitted it to the NFL for approval,” Davis told ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. “We’re excited for Tom to join the Raiders and it’s exciting because he will be just the third player in the history of the National Football League to become an owner.”
Brady and Davis have struck up a friendship in recent years, which led to the Raiders owner recently having Brady come on as a part owner of the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. That business relationship has likely been fruitful considering he’s now adding Brady to the ownership group for one of the biggest brands in sports. The Raiders will have to wait on approval as it won’t be coming during the spring meeting, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
What This Means for Raiders
In the short term, Brady buying a stake in the Raiders doesn’t mean much. He’s not buying a large share of the team to start and won’t have any responsibilities. Now, eventually, he could see his role expand. Davis doesn’t have an obvious heir to the Raiders for when he’s ready to retire. He could start selling off more and more portions of the team as he gets older. It’s possible that Brady will try to buy some of those portions.
For the Raiders, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Brady involved. He’s one of the greatest winners in the history of team sports. Though his involvement will be minimal, he’ll be a good person to have for recruiting and marketing purposes. He’s also close with head coach Josh McDaniels so it’s possible he can help with the football side of things if he wants to. While adding him to ownership isn’t a huge deal for the Raiders, it’s certainly an interesting thing to watch now and in the future.
In less than a year since retiring from football…
Tom Brady now has a minority stake in 2 professional sports teams in Vegas 💰
-Las Vegas Raiders
-Las Vegas Aces
Will Brady Try to Play for Raiders?
With Brady nearing confirmation on his ownership stake in the Raiders, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be returning to play football. If he does return, it will almost certainly be for the Raiders. That’s something that would’ve been very appealing to the team a few months ago. Brady was heavily linked to Las Vegas before he announced his retirement. McDaniels won six Super Bowls with the quarterback and probably wouldn’t mind getting the band back together.
However, the signing of Jimmy Garoppolo mostly rules out Brady making a comeback. In the event that Garoppolo got hurt, then things could get interesting but the future Hall of Famer appears to actually be done playing football. He’s going to be 46 when the season starts and it’s a miracle he was able to play at a high level for as long as he did. Taking off a lot of time and then jumping back mid-season sounds like a recipe for disaster.