Superstars as executives: Can Brady buck the trend?

Pete Carroll, who was introduced as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders this week, had some interesting things to say about one of his bosses - and he wasn't talking about majority owner Mark Davis.

"We happen to have the greatest of all time to help us," Carroll said. "We're going to lean on Tom as much as we possibly can. Because no one has the insights that he has."

But while regular viewers of Fox's NFL broadcasts might dispute the notion of Tom Brady's invaluable insights - "big play right here, KB" - it's certainly true that the Raiders minority owner is one of the most accomplished players to ever strap on a helmet.

How that'll translate to being an NFL executive is another question entirely.

To begin with, there's Brady's nebulous role with the Raiders. He and his business partner Tom Wagner own 10% of the team, with other investors holding 5% and Davis controlling the rest. But Brady doesn't have a formal title with the team, and Davis just hired general manager John Spytek to build the football roster alongside Carroll, who shared personnel duties during his 13-year run as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

Brady also has many other jobs, including one that pays him $37.5 million a year as Fox's lead game analyst. But he's said to have played a significant role in Vegas' offseason; Carroll himself said the seven-time Super Bowl champion was "intricately involved" in bringing him in as the franchise's new coach. If Brady isn't showing up to hold regular office hours at the Raiders complex, it at least sounds like he intends to do more than act as a famous figurehead.

What exactly he knows about running a football team is less clear. Brady's greatest strength as a player was a remarkable ability to process defenses and make adjustments at the line of scrimmage. At his peak, running a two-minute drill with an empty backfield and five receivers, he was close to unstoppable. If his plan with the Raiders is to find a quarterback who can approximate the way he ran an offense on the fly, it could be a long search - unless he hopes to coax Peyton Manning out of retirement. Or keep Aaron Rodgers from entering it.

Many former players become successful executives, but it's rare that the all-time best of them do so. Wayne Gretzky had an ownership stake with the Phoenix Coyotes for the better part of a decade, but his presence didn't keep them from entering bankruptcy and, as their coach, he lost more games than he won. Magic Johnson had a brief and unsuccessful stint running the Los Angeles Lakers' basketball operations. He's part of the powerful L.A. Dodgers ownership group, though he doesn't have an active role in baseball operations. (He also has a stake in the Washington Commanders.) Michael Jordan was a terrible NBA owner, but he's found success as co-owner of a NASCAR team in maybe the best example of how athletic talent doesn't necessarily make someone a savvy executive.

Whatever happens with Brady and the Raiders, it'll make for an intriguing test case.

Recent rule changes now allow NFL owners to sell off chunks of their team to outside private equity firms, which is how Brady and Wagner got in the door. And given the huge salaries that star NFL players now command, it's not hard to imagine more of them eventually following Brady's path. Josh Allen will end his playing days with a lot more cash to put toward a Bills ownership bid than Jim Kelly ever had.

LeBron James owns a piece of Fenway Sports Group, which includes the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Liverpool FC, but he's been open before about being a big NFL fan. Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is both unpopular and trying to secure public money for a new stadium. LeBron, in some kind of undefined Brady-like ownership role with the Browns, would make a lot of sense from a PR standpoint.

The closest parallel to Brady's situation might be John Elway, a Hall of Fame quarterback who won a Super Bowl while running the Denver Broncos, his former team. But Elway eased into the job in his first season with a well-run organization and had the great fortune of having late-career Peyton Manning fall into his lap. Elway's tenure ended after new ownership took over in 2022, in the middle of an eight-year playoff drought.

Carroll is the 10th head coach the Raiders have employed in the past 15 seasons, and they haven't won a playoff game since 2002. And while Carroll and Brady try to solve the quarterback question, they play in a division occupied by Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and promising rookie Bo Nix.

Brady, as he embarks on his owner-manager run, could end up being just the guy to turn around the Raiders. I'm just not sure where he'll find the time.

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.