Tom Brady Jokes About Conflicting Rumors Of FOX, Raiders Future

Tom Brady has complicated commitments to two organizations in the latest phase of his football life.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion prepares to call his first NFC Championship Game from FOX Sports on Sunday. He’s also heavily involved in a head coaching search among other football decisions as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Rumors swirled in recent weeks that Brady would flee his broadcast duties to put more time into the Raiders. The former quarterback assessed his reality Wednesday in a chat on “The Herd” with FS1’s Colin Cowherd.

“I don’t know where it comes from,” Brady told Cowherd. “It always says sources close to Brady or whatever. I’ve had the best time at FOX. I’ve loved every time going into the booth and working with such great people.”

Brady praised FOX’s production crew and his leading on-air team of Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi in his debut season. The former New England Patriot and Tampa Bay Buccaneer sounded motivated to build off of Year 1 in the booth.

“To see kind of how it is from a different perspective,” Brady said. “I’ve had 23 years playing on the field. I’ve watched so many games from the sideline and now I’m sitting up there in the booth and seeing it from a different perspective. I’ve loved just the different process and diving into all these teams. It’s been a lot of growth for me in one year and I can’t wait to see what it looks like in Year 2 and way beyond that, too. I’ve got nine years left on my deal and maybe longer. You never know. If FOX wants me, then I want to go. We’ll just keep going. It’s been really fun thus far.”

Brady also gave insight into what the Raiders need to do this offseason and what intrigues him about the involvement with the AFC West club.

“I wish I could have played football my entire life, but 23 years was long enough,” Brady said. “I got tired of taking the hits and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with the kids. Really being involved with the Raiders gives me an opportunity to be involved with football for the rest of my life. I really love teamwork. I always have. I love seeing other people succeed.”

As for the rumors, Brady playfully played into the uncertainty.

“It’s hard for me, too,” Brady joked. “I thought it was a great run. One solid year. There’s time for new things. I figured this has been totally mastered at this point.”