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It didn\u2019t take long for Tom Brady\u2019s dual life as an NFL owner and broadcaster to lead to teams cheating out in the open. While Brady may have triple-promise, pinky-sweared on his mother\u2019s life that he wouldn\u2019t use confidential information obtained by working for Fox to alter decisions inside the Las Vegas Raiders, Troy Aikman said the quiet part out loud this week when he revealed he\u2019d been hired by the Miami Dolphins as a \u201cconsultant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cI think the Dolphins were wise in understanding my relationships around the league and knowing that I have information that they don\u2019t have or can\u2019t get. And I think they were smart in taking advantage of that, whether it was through me or through somebody else. The Cowboys have never elected to do that, at least with me. You know, maybe they have with others,\u201d Aikman said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\nAikman can try to throw as much flowery language at this as he wants, but he\u2019s fundamentally talking about cheating. It might not be written into the letter of the law by the NFL, because it frankly hadn\u2019t come up before Brady\u2019s dual life, but we\u2019re talking about a broadcaster using information they learned when one team considered them an impartial third party, and funneling it directly to another team for the purpose of gaining a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThis is the same Dolphins organization that lost its 1st round pick in 2023 and a third round pick in 2024 for having improper contact with Tom Brady when he was under contract with the New England Patriots, attempting to bring both Brady and then-Saints coach Sean Payton to South Beach. There\u2019s a history of circumventing the rules by Miami, and this is simply their newest way of trying to gain an advantage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nAll of this was enabled by Brady being the league\u2019s golden child. Nobody else is capable of pulling off the same level of conflicted interest, because the NFL is about money. Roger Goodell didn\u2019t want to anger a broadcast partner in FOX by demanding Brady quit his announcing gig with them, and he doesn\u2019t want a public falling out with Brady akin to DeflateGate. So instead of making extremely commonsense rules like, I dunno, YOU CAN\u2019T WORK FOR A TEAM AND BE A BROADCASTER AT THE SAME TIME, <\/em>the league instead invented a whole bunch of bizarre workarounds so Tom could operate in both worlds. Why wouldn\u2019t the rest of the NFL try to copy the blueprint?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThere remain some with enough morals and ethics not to muddy the water. Matt Ryan quit his job with CBS when he accepted the role as president of the Atlanta Falcons earlier this year. Ryan remains in the vast minority, however, and Aikman said the quiet part out loud in this interview about why a team would want a broadcaster on the payroll. Moreover, Aikman volunteered this information, which is critical, because NFL teams don\u2019t need to publicly divulge consultants who are on their payroll. Every single announcer in football could theoretically have a side-job with a team, and nobody would be the wiser. There\u2019s a vested interest for everyone involved to keep these agreements private, when they should be forced to be made public in lieu of being banned all together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nTom Brady changed the NFL as a player with his \u201cBrady Rule,\u201d which limited pass-rush contact on quarterbacks. Now he\u2019s altering the league once more by getting the ball rolling on the biggest conflict of interest scandal the league has ever faced. What a \u201clegacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n