(Reuters) – Tom Brady has been approved by NFL owners to purchase a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday in a move commissioner Roger Goodell said was a great sign of the health of the league.
The seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback turned Fox broadcaster will take about 5% control of the team after winning the unanimous support of club owners at their meeting in Atlanta, multiple media outlets reported.
“It’s great that Tom Brady wants to invest in the NFL,” Goodell told reporters after the meeting.
“He cares deeply about this game, he believes in its future, and I think that’s just a signal about it.”
Former NFL defensive lineman Richard Seymour was also approved to purchase a minority stake in the Raiders.
“I’m deeply grateful – humbled and honored – to become a NFL owner,” Seymour posted to X.
Goodell said more former players could be making the move from the field to the ownership box in the near future.
“You see two examples here with both Richard and Tom but there are others … that are potentially going to be in process in the very near future,” Goodell said.
“We think that’s a great thing … One – they have the financial ability to do it – and two – I think they add a lot to the ownership.
“I love, not just the diversity of it but the diversity of thought in the context of what’s good for the game, what can we do better, how do we improve, how do we get bigger, how do we continue to expand our game on all fronts,” he said.
“So I think all that’s a positive. The players have a really important perspective and I think they’d be great owners. So we encourage that.”
The deal with Brady was initially agreed upon in May 2023 but it took owners 17 months to give their approval because of concerns Brady was getting too much of a discount from Raiders majority owner Mark Davis, ESPN reported.
It is not the first time the former New England and Tampa Bay quarterback has become a team owner.
Brady purchased a minority stake in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces from Davis in 2023 and later that year became a minority owner of English club Birmingham City.
Team Brady triumphed in world’s first all-electric raceboat championship race in February over a bevy of other celebrity-owned teams.
(Reporting by Conal Quinn in Mexico City and Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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