The bar for NFL team owners speaking in public is at ground level. Unless you say something staggeringly stupid, ignorant, or offensive, everyone will still call you “Mr.” and Jockey for your affection.

By the standards of his new colleagues, Tom Brady, the newly minted owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, performed quite well in his first announcing appearance since being cleared to join the league's top division. However, by the standards of the announcing profession and the expectations of Fox viewers, Brady still has a lot of work to do to convincingly juggle these two roles.

Brady officially became a minority owner of the Raiders earlier this week, a role that has significant implications for his Sunday job announcing major games for Fox. Restrictions on Brady as an owner include: he cannot criticize the referees, he cannot criticize other organizations, and he cannot participate in pregame production meetings with other organizations.

All of these restrictions make a lot of sense for Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft, for example. But for a man who is paid $375 million over the next 10 years to broadcast some of the most important games of the season – including the Super Bowl – these restrictions certainly seem to prevent Brady from being as honest as he can be should. and as fans should expect, he will be.

This type of overlap in ownership and transfer is not unprecedented in sports. In the NASCAR World Championship, for example, team owners often acted as broadcasters of races, with little or no acknowledgment of their on-air relationship. But NASCAR is a friendlier sport than the NFL… and like every other sport, has a much narrower broadcast reach than the NFL.

A station doesn't have to burn everything down; This kind of Skip Bayless/Stephen A. Smith flamethrowing is less analysis and more performance, and the fans can see through it. But a broadcaster should have the freedom to speak both honestly and authoritatively on sensitive topics – an underperforming player, a questionable coaching decision, a missed or mistaken penalty.

The alternative is exactly what we got from Brady on Sunday afternoon during Fox's Chiefs-49ers broadcast: a lively, upbeat broadcast so full of praise and rah-rah that the NFL writers couldn't have crafted it better.

Granted, if you're looking for two teams to criticize, you wouldn't necessarily start with two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City and perennial playoff contender San Francisco. These two teams are both far from their Super Bowl strength in February, but they are still among the better-run organizations in football.

And oh, did Brady take the credit? He praised the “sneaky creativity” of Patrick Mahomes. He showered love on Nick Bosa's “incredible performance in the Super Bowl.” He raved about the “really good creative plan from coach (Andy) Reid, one of the most unique playmakers in the league… just a great coach.” You have to give the players their flowers and then load an entire Amsterdam field with tulips.

Late in the first quarter, Kansas City's Nick Bolton was cited for a highly suspicious pass interference call; Brock Purdy's pass appeared to sail well over George Kittle's head. But aside from a simple tight call, Brady didn't criticize the penalty, not even noting that as a quarterback he loved those who went his way, even when he knew they were wrong. Instead, he simply handed it over to Mike Pereira, Fox's in-house referee analyst, with a quick, “I don't know, Mike, what do you think?”

Brady had a few moments, like when he called Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo “the bane of my existence” and referenced their past on the opposite sideline. But such lines sounded more like an ironic off-season banquet-level joke than an honest criticism.

Shoot, we could find out very quickly how honest Brady can be. His miserable old squad, the New England Patriots, plays the New York Jets next weekend. Analyzing this mess would push the boundaries of Brady's limitations. Unfortunately it airs on CBS, but that would be something worth listening to, right?

The frustrating thing about this new dynamic is that Brady is getting better as an analyst every week. His voice doesn't have the authoritative bass of John Madden, the distinctive regional accent of Cris Collinsworth, or the raucous enthusiasm of Tony Romo. But he makes up for it by bringing more audible enthusiasm each week, as well as a humanity that we weren't entirely sure existed when he was still a quarterback. When Brandon Aiyuk went down with a gruesome leg injury late in the first half, Brady audibly gasped. It's a small thing, but it helps connect broadcasters and viewers.

Brady must be excited about this new deal that keeps him in the public eye while giving him access to a higher level of the NFL hierarchy. And the league itself has to be happy; Its most famous graduate is now a de facto PR machine.

But Fox can't be happy that its star network is operating without the full toolbox at its disposal. And fans will miss out on some truly honest commentary from one of the most well-connected players in NFL history. As he did as a player, Brady only lets us see what he wants us to see.