Remember when Tom Brady said before the Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl that he didn’t have a “dog in the fight”? Maybe he did.
Seattle coach Mike Macdonald, appearing on Thursday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show, was asked to name someone who gave Macdonald advice before Super Bowl LX that might “surprise” Dan.
“John Harbaugh and I talked,” Macdonald said. “He was great. Probably can’t mention one guy that really helped us out that had some conflict of interest.”
Dan guessed Bill Belichick. Macdonald made it clear that it wasn’t the former Patriots coach.
How about the former Patriots quarterback?
Brady, now an owner of the Raiders, was planning to hire Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to be the next head coach in Las Vegas. Why wouldn’t Brady want to be bringing a Super Bowl winner to town?
And, frankly, the players who helped a given franchise win one or more (or six) Super Bowls may be inclined to not have their accomplishments undermined by a new championship team. Although there’s no reason to believe there’s any beef between Brady and the team that built a Brady statue outside the home stadium, there’s an odd vibe. Some have suggested that Brady would have preferred to buy a piece of the Patriots, not the Raiders, but that owner Robert Kraft wouldn’t give Brady the same sweetheart deal that Raiders owner Mark Davis did.
The key is the use of the term “conflict of interest.” That phrase has been used repeatedly regarding Brady’s role as a Fox broadcaster and as a Raiders owner. And he would clearly have a conflict between his Patriots ties and his ties to Kubiak.
