The Tom Brady roast has sparked plenty of attention and buzz and conversations this week. One of the most common questions I’ve gotten is the simplest.
Why would Brady do this?
As noted in the initial announcement of the arrangement from nearly two years ago to the day, the Brady roast is the first of a series. And Brady is an executive producer of the show. (That’s where the real money is in TV, kids.)
So Brady went first. It remains to be seen who goes next. Really, which athletes rise to Brady’s level? Tiger Woods? Michael Jordan? LeBron James?
Why would any of them do it?
Maybe Brady can persuade them to do it. And Brady has every reason to make it work. He and Peyton Manning are (or at least seem to be) in an unspoken competition to compile enough of a fortune to become the controlling owner of a team.
Manning seems to be in better position to do it. Omaha Productions is thriving. And Manning’s vibe, frankly, is that he’ll succeed at anything he does. (As explained during Monday’s PFT Live, he was the only non-comedian at the roast who knows how to effectively deliver jokes.)
Brady, in contrast, seemingly has been less successful than Manning in his non-NFL endeavors. His FTX dalliance was a disaster. TB12 and Brady brand merged with No Bull. Some still wonder whether he’ll eventually bail on his 10-year deal with Fox to become the No. 1 NFL game analyst.
Even Brady’s effort to buy a chunk of the Raiders is struggling. The league has not approved the deal due to the deep discount Raiders owner Mark Davis was giving to Brady. It’s still unclear whether it will ever become official.
Both Brady and Manning seemingly would love to be the primary owner of an NFL franchise. It would be a great extension of their rivalry, if both emerged as controlling owners of a team. For now, they appear to be racing each other to build the fortune necessary to buy a team.
In the end, there’s a chance neither comes up with the cash needed to own a team, given the ever-increasing values of NFL franchises. That said, I’d put my own money on Manning coming up with the requisite money before Brady.