"Teams don’t need to say anything": Roger Goodell reportedly gets nervous while rejecting Tom Brady's conflict of interest claims

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has addressed the growing debate around Tom Brady’s dual role as both a broadcaster and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Questions have circulated about whether Brady’s position gives him access to information unavailable to others, creating a potential conflict of interest.

Goodell pushed back strongly against that notion.

“Teams have the right to say whatever they want to. They don’t have to disclose any information if they think it’s a conflict of interest,” Goodell told CNBC’s Alex Sherman on Thursday. “Teams don’t need to say anything. Sometimes they don’t say anything to somebody who’s not [a minority owner].

"We get a lot of former players that are in [broadcast meetings] that are close to their former teams. I think our teams are pretty smart about saying, ‘I’m not sharing something with him.’”

“Where’s the conflict? He’s not hanging around in the facilities. We don’t allow that," he added.

Tom Brady himself also defended his situation in his weekly newsletter. He wrote:

“I love football. At its core it is a game of principles. And with all the success it has given me, I feel I have a moral and ethical duty to the sport, which is why the point where my roles in it intersect is not actually a point of conflict, despite what the paranoid and distrustful might believe. Rather, it’s the place from which my ethical duty emerges: to grow, evolve, and improve the game that has given me everything.”

While Goodell appeared animated and dismissive of the criticism, the issue brings attention to ongoing concerns about transparency, access and fairness in the gray areas of the NFL’s ownership and media.

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Skip Bayless blasts Tom Brady over “sanctimonious hypocrisy” in conflict of interest debate

Skip Bayless delivered a sharp and unrelenting take on Tom Brady’s dual role. On Thursday, Bayless responded to Brady’s newsletter, denying any conflict of interest on "The Arena: Gridiron."

"He (Brady) doesn't deserve a lifetime GOAT pass from any criticism after he leaves the football field," Bayless said. "He's trying to treat us like a bunch of gullible fools with all this sanctimonious bulls*it that's in this post of his. And when he sat there with the headset on, he knew exactly what he was doing. It was a big FU to the league and to the network I used to work for."

Bayless argued that Tom Brady’s overlapping positions create an unavoidable bias, and they are both a money play and a power grab. According to Bayless, Brady wants the prestige of ownership and the paycheck of broadcasting while avoiding scrutiny.