ESPN, Which Has Conflict Of Interest With NFL, Discusses Tom Brady Conflict Of Interest

Let's be completely honest, shall we? A lot of people who cover the NFL, particularly for league broadcast partners, are up to their eyeballs in conflict of interest. And so it becomes hilarious when a network that is going to be billions of dollars deep into a conflict of interest does a segment on Tom Brady's conflict of interest.

And yet, that is exactly what happened on ESPN's pregame show, Sunday NFL Countdown.

Tom Brady is only going to improve in the broadcast booth according to former teammate Logan Ryan. Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

ESPN Addresses Brady Conflict

The show did a six-minute segment on whether Tom Brady's work as the Fox lead NFL analyst and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders represents a conflict of interest because the future Hall of Fame quarterback might be tempted to offer the Raiders information he gleans during production meetings and other interactions while doing his broadcast job.

That issue was the talk of the NFL during the past week. And it became really weird when former Raiders coach Antonio Pierce basically said Brady and he had conversations about information Brady got while working for Fox.

(OutKick contacted the NFL to ask if it will investigate Pierce's contentions and the league declined to answer.)

But it's an issue that's out there even if the NFL limits how Brady can gain that information because the NFL has limited his ability to do so.

Oct 13, 2024; London, United Kingdom; The NFL shield logo at midfield before an NFL International Series game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

ESPN Addresses Somebody Else's Conflict

So what's the big deal?

Well, ESPN went on and on about the issue with virtually zero self-awareness. None, in fact.

ESPN, you see, has agreed to be wildly conflicted in its interest in the NFL. How?

Because ESPN obviously covers the NFL as a network and vertical online and radio network. And ESPN is in business with the NFL in that it pays for broadcast and other rights. And the big one:

ESPN is about to be partly owned by the NFL.

You'll recall that in August, ESPN and the NFL agreed to a sale that will turn over the league's top media holdings – including NFL Network and the RedZone channel – to ESPN in exchange for the NFL getting equity in ESPN.

ESPN Takes NFL Media For Equity

What does that mean?

ESPN is swallowing the NFL's media division. And the NFL is becoming a 10 percent owner in ESPN that is worth an estimated $2-$3 billion.

So ESPN, the journalistic organization that is already covering the NFL, is a business partner with the NFL and will soon (pending regulatory approval) will be partially owned by the NFL.

That means ESPN will be covering its minority owner which probably wouldn't love any bad publicity coming from the so-called Worldwide Leader

If that's not a conflict of interest, then nothing is.

But the network up to its eyeballs in conflict of interest was discussing Brady's conflict of interest. as if it's pristine on the matter.

ESPN Credibility Takes A Hit

The only thing that saved ESPN from being completely disingenuous on the matter is that the network acknowledged its own conflict of interest by running a scroll at the bottom of the screen acknowledging it is generally guilty of the same issue that Brady is potentially guilty of.

No it didn't.

There was no such disclaimer. No such self-awareness.

And this is the problem with ESPN's conflict of interest with the NFL: It is no longer an independent party when it covers touchy NFL issues such as this.

Obviously, the "journalists" who authored this segment didn't see the proverbial forest from the trees and say, ‘Wait a sec, we’re saying Brady might have a conflict of interest problem but we also have a conflict of interest problem." 

You know what that lack of awareness and conflict of interest does for ESPN? 

It diminishes credibility.