Tom Brady will be part of Raiders’ coaching search, while calling playoffs and Super Bowl for Fox

This month is a big reason the Las Vegas Raiders sold a limited ownership stake to Tom Brady.

Brady is one of the greatest players ever, a respected leader and he understands the game on levels Raiders owner Mark Davis can not. He’s a voice that you want in the room when making a huge decision on who to hire as your next head coach, as the Raiders will be doing after firing Antonio Pierce on Tuesday.

There’s just one problem, and that’s Brady’s day job.

Brady will still be on the No. 1 broadcast team for the Fox network. That has been a clear conflict of interest since he was approved for his Raiders ownership stake, and now is when it gets really tricky.

Brady will be part of the process of interviewing candidates during the Raiders’ search, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Some of those candidates could be a huge part of teams still alive in the playoffs and on broadcasts with Brady doing color analysis.

Now that conflict of interest becomes a lot easier to see. And keep this in mind: The network that does this season’s Super Bowl is Fox, which employs Brady as its top analyst.

Tom Brady could call games of assistants he’s interviewing

Here’s a very plausible situation that Brady, Fox, the Raiders, the NFL and a coaching candidate will have to address.

The Fox network has NFC games through the playoffs and is the network for Super Bowl LIX. The Detroit Lions are the NFC’s No. 1 seed and a Super Bowl favorite with two assistants, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, at the top of the available candidates this head-coaching cycle.

If the Raiders want to conduct a serious search, they will put in a request for Johnson, Glenn or both. Or another in-demand coordinator from an NFC playoff team like Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen or Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

If the Raiders want to talk to Johnson, for example, Fox might be able to work around Brady calling a Lions game in divisional weekend. But as part of their No. 1 broadcast team, he couldn’t avoid an NFC championship game that involves the Lions. Or the Super Bowl with Detroit being the NFC participant, unless Fox changes its broadcast team plans for a game viewed by 100 million people.

Let’s say Johnson declines an interview with the Raiders. Or if he picks another team, or even if he’s interested in the Raiders before another round of interviews. How is Brady supposed to call a game without making any mention of Johnson and his offense? Would Brady be honest if he believes Johnson’s game plan in that game is flawed? That’s part of being a color commentator. It’s almost impossible for Brady to call a game without some of his comments looking like he’s blurring the lines between Fox announcer and Raiders limited owner.

If you’re the owner of a team like the Chicago Bears, which has shown interest in Johnson, and you hear Brady calling a Lions playoff game and gushing over Detroit’s offensive scheme — which is very much a part of Brady’s job if the Lions offense keeps playing as well as it has all season — wouldn’t you view that as an opposing team owner using his unique platform to get an advantage in the hiring process you don’t have?

Basically, it’s a mess and one the NFL tried to work around long before Brady was part of the Raiders’ head-coaching search.

NFL has some Brady rules already

The NFL put in some rules for Brady that made it much harder for him to do his job. But the league felt that was necessary with the obvious conflict of interest.

Brady wasn’t banned from working Raiders games, which was a curious decision by the league, but he has other restrictions. Brady can’t be inside other team’s facility, attend another team’s practices or take part in pre-production meetings with coaches, players and executives of other teams. He is also limited in how he can criticize officials or other franchises and their owners.

That all made sense. But Brady being a part of interviewing an assistant coach and perhaps calling his game a couple days later is way trickier than being barred from attending the practice of a team before he calls its game.

It’s a situation that the NFL will have to address. They’re sure to hear about it, especially if one of the Raiders’ top candidates is part of Super Bowl LIX with Brady in the booth.