Bear Digest

What Bears should demand because of this week's Tom Brady conflict

Because the league has ruled Tom Brady can do production meetings this year, the Bears should demand something for this week in the interest of fairness.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tom Brady, announcer and owner, is on the field before the game between the Bears and Packers last season.
Tom Brady, announcer and owner, is on the field before the game between the Bears and Packers last season. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Tom Brady conflict-of-interest issue is about to hit the Bears across the face again.

Last year it happened during the pre-courtship of Ben Johnson at season's end and the playoffs.

Because Brady is a part-owner of the Raiders and also an announcer for Fox, he does two jobs that can come into direct conflict as he can use access to information for announcers to benefit the Raiders in a future game.

As part of the broadcast crew for this week's Cowboys-Bears game, Brady is going to be able to probe during production meetings for information. Anything he might get could be of help next week for the team he owns because the Bears travel to Las Vegas then to play the Raiders.

Yes, the league allows Brady to get away with this, apparently because he's Brady. In fact, they ruled this year he could do even more of it than he did last year when he was completely banned from any production meetings.

It isn't quite as bad as it could be, but it still exists. This year the league said it was OK for Brady to meet with coaches and players ahead of that week's game as long as the meetings are virtual or off-site. He can't come to Halas Hall and dig around for information under the guise of a production meeting there, but if the meeting is away from the facility he can take part.

Let's not be naive. It's also not out of the question the production team can give Brady information they gain in any meeting held at the practice facility even if he isn't involved in one there.

There were already rumblings about all of this as early as Monday, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk discussed it on AM-670's Mully & Haugh on Tuesday.

The league is not going to step in now and prohibit Brady from attending any production meetings off site or virtually because they have already changed rules to let him do it this year. So demanding he not be allowed to take part is pointless.

However, if there is no real benefit in terms of intelligence or information gathering for Brady the announcer, then simply telling him to stay out should bother no one. And if it is important he gets involved in getting information a week before the Bears play the Raiders, then it definitely is an advantage and an unfair one to be snuffed out.

The Solution

So, what the Bears should do is demand that they be allowed to have a representative sit in on all production meetings for this week's Fox telecast of the Raiders and Commanders game so that they have the same advantage the Raiders will have next week.

If nothing is done or said by the Bears about this situation, though, then no one should complain—whether editorially, social media or elsewhere.

That's because if the league is going to let this continue when there is an obvious threat to competitive integrity, and if the Bears don't raise an objection or simply do something about it themselves, they'll get what they deserve.

In the end, it's on the Bears to solve the problem because the league has already been genuflecting at the Brady altar for a long time.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.