Brady: 'Don't have really a daily role' with Raiders, stays retired after exploring NFL comeback

Diamond Leung, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Mar 26, 2026

Published in Football

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Tom Brady after returning to the playing field at the Fanatics Flag Football Classic was asked if he has looked into the NFL rules of a minority owner temporarily coming back to play in the league.

Brady, who retired after the 2022 season and whose purchase of a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders was approved in 2024, told CNBC Sport on Thursday that he actually has asked.

“Funny enough you ask,” Brady said. “I actually have inquired, and they don’t like that idea very much, so I’m going to leave it at that. We explored a lot of different things, and I’m very happily retired. Let me just say that, too.

“I loved being out there playing in the flag game. I loved not getting hit. I’ve got a lot of really fun things I’m involved in, and it’s never going to get old throwing passes to incredible athletes on the football field. But if anything, that game reconfirmed to me that I’m very happy in my retirement.”

The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback at age 48 was 8 for 12 for 71 yards and two touchdowns over two flag football games on Saturday in an event that featured current and former NFL star players along with the Team USA flag football that captured the event championship.

On CNBC when told he wasn’t going to be asked if he was preparing a comeback, Brady smiled and said, “good.” He said at the flag football event he wouldn’t return to the field in that sport when it debuted in the 2028 Olympics.

An NFL spokesperson told CNBC if Brady were to pursue a return to the league, he would first need to divest his Raiders ownership stake, citing league policy.

“In addition, there would be salary cap issues involving a player/owner,” the spokesperson said.

Brady also told CNBC of his role with the Raiders that it is a “strategic advisory role” while also saying, “I don’t have really a daily role.”

“I’m a minority owner,” he said. “So, when you’re that, there’s really no job description.

“You know, my phone call is always available to everybody who needs it. I want to see everyone succeed, be their best, bring a winning kind of a culture to Las Vegas — to bring the Raiders back to glory. I’d love to be a part of it.”

Raiders owner Mark Davis had said in a statement in January that general manager John Spytek would lead football operations in “close collaboration” with Brady, including the coaching search that landed Klint Kubiak.

After Kubiak’s introductory news conference, Davis was asked if he expected Brady to have an increased role this offseason, he said, “I think we’ll just wait and find out.” Davis also said Kubiak would report to Spytek and Brady.

Asked on Saturday after playing flag football how his Raiders role would be different this year, Brady said, “I was very fortunate in my career to be around amazing people and mentors like Robert Kraft as an owner of a team and now getting to work with Mark Davis in the role that I’m at. And to see kind of a different team shape, the way that things are done and how we’re evolving and growing, we certainly have a long ways to go.

“What I learned about football in 23 seasons is it’s a tremendous amount of resilience, adversity, discipline, determination, communication of an entire organization to see really the value in committing to one another. So it’s always I think process over outcome, and I think we’re all trying all of us in the role that we have whether it’s an ownership role, whether it’s our personnel department, or strength and conditioning and athletic training and obviously players and positions offense and defense, everyone’s got to come together. And everyone has to work incredibly hard for the people next to them.”

The part of the question that was about his response to the Maxx Crosby trade being rescinded? Brady did not offer one.

Brady was asked Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings With Maria” if he ultimately wanted to be a majority owner.

“I paid ordinary income taxes for a very long time in the NFL,” Brady said, smiling. “The valuations have gotten very expensive. But I love playing the role that I have. I certainly love my role at Fox, and broadcasting … I could never have imagined the joy that I would find in being able to be on camera with my great partner Kevin Burkhardt, our entire team and communicating to all our fans how incredible the game of football is.

“Having this role in broadcasting, being involved in football with the Raiders has been absolutely a dream come true.”

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