Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks won't comment on Tom Brady's conflict of interest

On Monday night, the Tom Brady conflict of interest that had been hiding in plain sight for months moved to the front burner, when Tom Brady couldn’t hide from being in plain sight of ESPN cameras while in the Raiders’ coaching box. It has become the story of the day and, coincidentally, Fox CEO Eric Shanks appeared earlier in the day at the Front Office Sports “Tuned In” event.

Asked by Ryan Glasspiegel of FOS about Brady’s dual roles for Fox and the Raiders, Shanks had nothing to say.

“Not gonna answer that,” Shanks said, via David Rumsey of FrontOfficeSports.com. “If there’s a conversation that needs to be had after last night, we’ll have it.”

There’s no conversation to be had, because it’s obvious the NFL doesn’t want to have one. The league made this mess when it approved 11 months ago Brady’s acquisition of a piece of the Raiders, despite his 10-year, $375 million arrangement with Fox. To do an about-face now would be to admit that they screwed the pooch previously.

And so the best play for everyone will be to say as little as possible — and to wait for the next bright, shiny object to roll down the pro football assembly line. It’s coming in only two nights, when the Bills host the Dolphins.

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