Adam Hill: Tom Brady's fake rivalry with Logan Paul is good for business

Adam Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jul 25, 2026

Published in Football

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LAS VEGAS — The question about what exactly Tom Brady is thinking by continuing this ridiculous fake rivalry with internet celebrity turned professional wrestler Logan Paul keeps popping up all over social media.

It has even replaced, “What’s Fernando Mendoza really like?” as the most commonly-asked question when doing radio interviews around the country about the Raiders.

As in the case with nearly every mystery, it’s probably not that complicated if you follow the money. We’ll get to that.

Sure, look, there could be other factors at play.

Brady misses competition and this weird flirtation with a potential WWE run keeps him in the mix. He knows it’s going to be the beginning of the end the moment he actually does step in a ring, so a prolonged buildup to that inevitability allows it to continue to have life.

Brady is also a dad of two teenage sons, and he may actually believe they think it’s cool despite how panned the actions have been over the past few months.

Perhaps it’s just really fun for him. That’s tough to imagine based on just how cringy every single one of these staged interactions has been, but you just never know.

Maybe he’s always been so corny and his greatness on the field has shielded him from ridicule.

Who knows?

It could even be a full-blown mid-life crisis for Brady, almost 49. That would at least help explain the modeling video. Seriously, what was that?

It’s impossible to say what’s in his head, so any or all of the above factors are theoretically feasible.

But the bottom line is the bottom line.

Brady is building an empire and several of his brands and partners — and affiliates of such — stand to make money from his continued presence in the news and in viral videos.

And yes, the Raiders are part of it. And that’s not even necessarily a bad thing.

Brady has greatly expanded his business portfolio, which not only includes part-ownership of the Raiders but also a partnership with Fanatics.

The now-infamous slap video from this weekend of Brady delivering a right hand to Paul’s face was filmed at Fanatics Fest last weekend.

That wasn’t a coincidence. As scripted as this whole thing may have felt from the beginning, it could not be more straight out of Hollywood.

Fanatics has a long-term marketing and partnership deal with the WWE, where Paul is employed, and Brady has teased an appearance.

The WWE is owned by TKO Group Holdings, which also owns the UFC and other entities.

TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, the inspiration for the Ari Gold character in “Entourage,” also owns a minority stake in the Raiders.

So does Mark Shapiro, the President and COO of TKO.

TKO is a subsidiary of the WME Group, which represents Brady’s off-field interests.

And don’t forget that private equity billionaire Egon Durban, whose investment group owns about 40% of the Raiders and is the presumed successor to Mark Davis as managing partner, is the CEO of Silver Lake, which owns WME Group, and is on the TKO Board of Directors.

And let’s not even get into the Saudi-backed Fanatics Flag Football stuff and how that could all play into all of this at some point down the road. Where is WrestleMania next year? Oh yeah, Riyadh.

So you get it now? There are no coincidences.

This isn’t to say it was a grand conspiracy designed in boardrooms and brought to life on TikTok. There just so happens to be a very connected network of entities that all stand to make money off such contrived drama.

None of this is wrong or even really unethical. It’s business. And these guys are all really good at it.

They are certainly better at making money than Brady is at pretending to be in a feud.

You may not enjoy any of this. Nobody would blame you. It’s truly preposterous.

And faker than even the silliest of WWE storylines.

But the Raiders are playing in a different world now. That’s a good thing for their bottom line, which in turn could be good for the product on the field.

Let’s be honest. It certainly couldn’t get much worse.

Neither could Brady’s acting.