Owners approving Tom Brady Raiders stake would end any unretirement bid

Tom Brady‘s loose Raiders affiliation has already forced the NFL to place significant restrictions on his broadcasting career, preventing him from entering team facilities ahead of covering games for Fox. 

Brady also cannot take part in pregame meetings with players, representing a highly unusual arrangement for an announcer. Another notable wrinkle will come to pass if the all-time QB great is finally approved as a Raiders part-owner.

Should owners approve Brady’s Raiders ownership stake, it will officially put an end to a second unretirement. Brady, who mentioned the prospect of unretiring once again this offseason, would be prohibited from following through with any plan if he becomes a part-owner for the Las Vegas franchise, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones notes.

This summer, Brady said he was not opposed to making an in-season return. This was interesting since the 23-year veteran had closed the door on a comeback in 2023, shortly after purchasing a stake in the Raiders. This included rebuffing his hometown 49ers, who sought to have him start and mentor Brock Purdy last year.

NFL owners had cited issues with Brady’s stake price and conflict of interest with his broadcasting gig, Those matters have since been resolved, but owners did not approve Brady’s stake at their most recent meetings, continuing a trend with the matter not coming up. Attending a Raiders practice late in the 2023 season even tripped alarms for owners.

Momentum does appear to be building toward Brady finally becoming a part-owner in December, but if the 47-year-old is voted in, he will officially bid farewell to a second unretirement. While Brady famously attempted to become a player/owner for the Dolphins during his first retirement in 2022, leading to a stiff penalty for that organization, a 2023 rule change would prohibit him from playing for the Raiders while owning a piece of the franchise.

Previously, Brady could have been a player/owner in Vegas had 24 owners approved it. Now, Jones writes no such vote would take place. Shortly after MLS club Inter Miami added Lionel Messi as a player while giving the soccer legend equity in the franchise, the NFL passed a rule nixing teams from doing the same. 

Owners would have been unlikely to approve Brady as a player/owner in Miami, but the matter was on the table. Now, Brady would need to decide — if an opportunity arose for him to leave the broadcast booth and take part in this season. He has certainly been given plenty of time on this front, as the NFL’s finance committee has tabled this matter since Brady agreed to buy a piece of the Raiders in May 2023.

Brady retired in both February 2022 and February 2023, famously backtracking on the first exit to play the age-45 season he had long sought to do. Stretching the boundaries of the quarterback position in terms of accomplishments and longevity, Brady is widely considered to have put together the greatest career in NFL history. 

His 2022 season brought a significant step back from a 2021 campaign for which the first-ballot Hall of Famer-to-be earned second-team All-Pro accolades. But Brady remains on the NFL periphery in terms of another comeback. 

His Raiders agreement seemingly puts the kibosh on the matter, though the aspiring owner — one whose planned passive role has caused several issues — may be months away from stepping into those ranks.