Tom Brady's Next Project is in Miami, Waiting for a Call
Fernando Mendoza wants Brady as a mentor. Does the Raiders' minority owner want the job?
In Today’s Newsletter…
1. Leading Off: Will Tom Brady mentor his own No. 1 pick?
2. Scouting Report: Final two NBA play-ins, slumping Yankees face ace
3. NBA Playoff Preview: Defending champions are heavy favorites to repeat
4. Overtime: The latest mock NFL Drafts
1. Leading Off
Tom Brady was on the sideline at Hard Rock Stadium in January when Indiana won its first national championship, part of the Raiders contingent that flew in to watch. Fernando Mendoza, the Hoosiers’ Heisman-winning quarterback, didn’t know Brady was there until it was over.
Next week, that changes. Mendoza is the overwhelming favorite to go No. 1 to Las Vegas in the NFL Draft, which means Brady, a Raiders minority owner, is about to become his boss. “I love everything about his game,” he said on a Fox broadcast in December, singling out Mendoza’s leadership and the way he shows up for teammates.
Brady’s post-playing life is complicated. He’s part of the Raiders management team, but he’s also Fox’s lead NFL analyst, which has made the owner side of things awkward. Some team officials have worried he could learn things in production meetings one week and use them to help Las Vegas the next — a complaint that always seemed more about jealousy than any real competitive issue. Is it fair that Brady got the biggest sports broadcasting deal ever (10 years, $375 million) before he called a game, then a sweetheart deal to become an owner? Probably not. But he won more Super Bowls than anyone who ever played, so it doesn’t need to be.
What’s his day-to-day actually going to look like in Henderson? Kirk Cousins, signed this month as a bridge starter for the Raiders, gave us the first real tell. Brady, he said, “just wants to be a resource,” a phone call or text away, not in the QB room every day.
That matters, because Mendoza’s path into the league is going to look nothing like Brady’s. He was a national champion too, but as a backup at Michigan, and later was the 199th pick in the 2000 draft. Brady took over after Drew Bledsoe got hurt in Week 2 of his second season and kept the job for nearly two decades. Mendoza arrives as the No. 1 pick of a franchise that won just three games last year and is openly building around him. But new head coach Klint Kubiak said he’s in no rush to play him. “Ideally, you don’t want him to start from Day 1,” Kubiak told reporters at the NFL’s annual meeting last month. “You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody.”
Mendoza wants the help. “It’s gonna be a long journey, and to potentially have a mentor like that, it would be pretty impressive and pretty meaningful,” he said at the combine, where Mendoza said a brief hello to Brady on the phone during his Raiders interview.
The 22-year-old is walking into something nobody’s done before: a rookie quarterback with a boss who happens to be the best to ever play his position. How much Brady actually gives him (film sessions, the occasional text, nothing at all) will shape Mendoza’s first two years more than anything Kubiak draws up. My guess: Brady’s around a lot early and pulls back once the season starts and the Fox cameras go live. If he’s going to teach him anything, it happens in June, not November.
— Abe Rakov
P.S. I’ll be at PEAK 2026 in Las Vegas Monday through Wednesday, so send me an email if you’ll be in town. In case you don’t know, PEAK is the leading gathering for the global SportsTech and Innovation industry, bringing together top founders, investors, sports executives, and innovation leaders who are at the forefront of SportsTech. I’ll be covering what I learn about the future of sports in next week’s newsletter. A handful of tickets are still available, so if you’re in Vegas or want to make a last-minute trip, join me there.
2. Scouting Report
Curry and Ball look to carry teams into NBA Playoffs, and there’s no rest for the weary Yankees in tonight’s matchup.
Hornets G LaMelo Ball at Magic (CHA -3.5)
Ball has scored 27+ in four of his past five games as he tries to will his team to the real playoffs. He’s coming off a 30-point, and controversial, performance in a 1-point overtime win against Miami. But that took a lot of shots: Ball was 12-31 from the field, weighed down by a 2-16 night from three. He’s been shooting a lot from beyond the arc (12+ times in each of his past six games), but had made at least five treys in five straight before the cold effort against the Heat. The Hornets are favored on the road against the Magic, who actually have played well down the stretch. If Charlotte wins, it’s likely behind another Ball 24+ point effort.
Points: 23.5 (20.1 - 30, 19, 27, 36, 35), Reb: 5.5 (4.8 - 5, 7, 5, 5, 3), Ast: 7.5 (7.1 - 10, 6, 8, 6, 8)
ORL - L2 (6-4 L10) | Points Allowed: 115.1 (13th), Reb Allowed: 43.3 (13th), Ast Allowed: 25.3 (8th)
Warriors G Stephen Curry at Suns (PHX -3.5)
The Warriors had just a 15% chance to win their first Play-In matchup at the Clippers after the first half, but then Curry scored 27 points in the final 22 minutes to, along with Al Horford, grab the win for his team. Curry was 12-23 from the field, including 7-12 from three. His 35 points were the most he’s scored since a 38-point outburst against the lowly Mavericks in January. Curry had gone three games in a row scoring below his season average before Wednesday, and overall is averaging just over 24 points over his past nine. He really wants a chance at a playoff run, though, and while the Suns are favored at home, they aren’t trustworthy.
Points: 27.5 (26.6 - 35, 24, 11, 17, 29), Reb: 3.5 (3.6 - 1, 6, 3, 5, 2), Ast: 4.5 (4.7 - 4, 3, 5, 2, 4)
PHX - L1 (5-5 L10) | Points Allowed: 111.1 (6th), Reb Allowed: 43.7 (15th), Ast Allowed: 25.1 (7th)
Royals SP Michael Wacha at Yankees (NYY -184)
The Yankees have lost seven of nine after starting the season 8-2, and now they have to face one of the hottest pitchers to start this campaign. Wacha posted his fourth season in a row with a sub-3.90 ERA last year, but was just 10-13 because his teammates struggled when he was on the mound. He’s still not getting a ton of support in 2026, as the Royals average just 2.7 runs scored in his three starts, but he hasn’t needed the help. Wacha has given up just one run across 21.0 innings and opponents have just 10 hits in that span. He also went eight innings in his last outing, a 2-0 win over the White Sox.
Strikeouts: 5.5 (5.7 - 7, 3, 7), Earned Runs: TBD (0.3 - 0, 1, 0), Hits: TBD (3.3 - 4, 3, 3)
NYY - L1 (3-7 L10) | Batting Ave.: .212 (27th), SO: 9.6 (24th), Runs Scored: 4.6 (14th), Hits: 6.9 (27th)
*Player stats are shown as: Today’s total (Season average - Last 5 games from most recent to oldest)
3. NBA Playoff Preview
The final NBA Play-In games don’t finish until tonight, but those matchups likely won’t have much of an impact on the actual playoffs. The winner of the Magic vs. Hornets faces the Pistons and either the Suns or Warriors will head to Oklahoma City to take on the defending champion Thunder, who are significant favorites to be the NBA’s first repeat champions since the Warriors in 2017 and 2018.
The upstart Spurs (who are 4-1 against OKC this season) and the surprise of the year, the Celtics, have the second-best odds to win the title (both at +550) after the Thunder (+100). The East’s regular season champions, the Pistons, are +2000 and behind two conference foes (Cleveland, along with Boston).
Unsurprisingly, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has the best odds to win Finals MVP (+110), with San Antonio superstar Victor Wembanyama second at +600 and Boston’s duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum both at +1200.
The Odds
NBA Title — OKC: +100, SAS and BOS: +550, DEN: +1200, CLE: +1300, DET: +2000, NYK: +2200, HOU: +7000, CHA: +8000, MIN: +10000
Western Conference Champions — OKC: -175, SAS: +330, DEN: +700, HOU: +2700, MIN: +4500, LAL: +15000, GSW: +22500, POR and PHX: +25000
Eastern Conference Champions — BOS: +150, CLE: +320, DET: +480, NYK: +550, CHA: +2200, ATL: +2700, TOR: +4000, PHI: +4500, ORL: +10000
Prediction Markets Data
To Win the NBA Title — Thunder: 45%, Spurs: 15%, Celtics: 12%, Nuggets: 10%, Pistons: 5%, Cavaliers and Knicks: 4%, Rockets: 2%, Everyone else: 1% or less
4. Overtime
In the News
The NFL Mock Draft Database website updated its 2026 Consensus Big Board, incorporating 1,168 first-round mock drafts. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is obviously first, with Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese at No. 2, Texas Tech EDGE David Bailey third, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love fourth and Miami offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa fifth. Ohio State players make up four of the first nine picks.
Trades are nearly as big a part of the NFL Draft as the selections themselves, and NFL.com looks at six potential deals that could transform the first round. Will the Cowboys be aggressive to nab a linebacker? Could the Jets trade up for a potential star wide receiver? What about the Raiders? Will they make a move for a second first-round pick to give Fernando Mendoza a familiar teammate?
The college football season is likely to start even earlier after an NCAA committee recommended a pre-Labor Day launch to give schools the opportunity for two byes in a 14-week regular season. If the NCAA adopts the proposal, it would not only give players additional rest during the season and allow for more College Football Playoff flexibility, it would make it easier for the NCAA to comply with President Trump’s “exclusive window” order for the annual Army-Navy game.
The Dodgers spent seven times more money on payroll than the Marlins, the lowest spenders in Major League Baseball, last season. Los Angeles’s combined $515 million in payroll and luxury tax payments beat the previous record by nearly $85 million (which was set by the Mets in 2024). According to the Associate Press, the World Series champions’ total was more than the six bottom teams combined.
Ohio State lacrosse player turned Oklahoma linebacker Owen Heinecke was granted a fifth season by an Oklahoma judge after a months-long legal dispute over his eligibility. Sooners coach Brent Venables testified for his team’s second-leading tackler after the NCAA denied Heinecke’s waiver request arguing that the three lacrosse games he played for Ohio State in 2021 shouldn’t count as a year against him.
What to Watch (times ET)
Friday
6:40pm: Rays vs. Pirates on Apple TV
7:15pm: Tigers vs. Red Sox on Apple TV
7:30pm: Hornets vs. Magic (NBA Play-In) on Prime Video
8pm: Renegades vs. Aviators (UFL) on FOX
10pm: Warriors vs. Suns (NBA Play-In) on Prime Video
10:30pm: Whitecaps vs. Sporting Kansas City on Apple TV
Saturday
12:30pm: Tottenham vs. Brighton on NBC or Battlehawks vs. Defenders (UFL) on ABC
1pm: Raptors vs. Cavaliers (Game 1) on Prime Video
3pm: Senators vs. Hurricanes (Game 1) on ESPN or Chelsea vs. Manchester United on Peacock
3:30pm: Timberwolves vs. Nuggets (Game 1) on Prime Video
5:30pm: Wild vs. Stars (Game 1) on ESPN
6pm: Hawks vs. Knicks (Game 1) on Prime Video
7:15pm: Rangers vs. Mariners or Braves vs. Phillies on FOX
8pm: Flyers vs. Penguins (Game 1) on ESPN
8:30pm: Rockets vs. Lakers (Game 1) on ABC
Sunday
11:30am: Manchester City vs. Arsenal on NBC
1pm: 76ers vs. Celtics (Game 1) on ABC
2pm: NASCAR Cup Series at Kansas on FOX
3pm: Kings vs. Avalanche (Game 1) on TNT
3:30pm: Suns/Warriors vs. Thunder (Game 1) on ABC
5:30pm: Grand Prix of Long Beach (IndyCar) on FOX
5:45pm: Canadians vs. Lightning (Game 1) on TNT
6:30pm: Magic/Hornets vs. Pistons (Game 1) on NBC
7:20pm: Braves vs. Phillies on Peacock
7:30pm: Bruins vs. Sabres (Game 1) on ESPN
9pm: Trail Blazers vs. Spurs (Game 1) on NBC
10pm: Mammoth vs. Golden Knights (Game 1) on ESPN