Brady’s Raiders bid to be approved, sources say

Tom Brady is expected to be approved as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders at Tuesday’s NFL fall owners meeting in Atlanta, league sources told ESPN on Saturday.

The NFL’s finance committee has reviewed Brady’s bid and plans to bring it to the other owners to vote, with 24 of the league’s 32 owners needed to approve it.

But as one source told ESPN, the committee would not be bringing Brady’s bid to the owners to vote if it were not going to be approved, which now appears to be a formality.

The finance committee unanimously approved Brady as minority owner, and no one could recall the last time owners voted against the finance committee’s unanimous recommendation, sources told ESPN.

Brady therefore is days away from purchasing approximately 10% of the Raiders, along with businessman Tom Wagner, from owner Mark Davis. It is a transaction that was agreed to in May 2023 but needed to be refined and adjusted after the league’s financial committee believed the initial offer was too discounted.

“We’re excited for Tom to join the Raiders,” Davis told ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez at the time of the initial agreement. “And it’s exciting because he will be just the third player in the history of the National Football League to become an owner.”

George Halas and Jerry Richardson are the other two.

Before what turned out to be Brady’s final NFL season in 2022, the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback agreed to a 10-year, $375 million contract to join Fox as an analyst once his playing career was over. He retired in 2023 and agreed to begin at Fox for the 2024 season.

Brady, 47, is expected to become one of the highest-profile former athletes to own a piece of a team, joining all-time greats such as Michael Jordan, who became part owner of the Bobcats/Hornets franchise; Magic Johnson, who was part of an investment group that bought a stake in the Dodgers and the Commanders; Dwyane Wade, who purchased an ownership stake in the Jazz in 2021; Alex Rodriguez, who became part owner of the Timberwolves in 2021; Mario Lemieux, who has owned the Penguins since 1999; Patrick Mahomes, who became part owner of the Royals in 2020; Warrick Dunn, who is a limited partner with the Falcons; John Stallworth with the Steelers; and Lewis Hamilton with the Broncos.

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