When news broke last year that Tom Brady had signed a gargantuan 10-year, $375 million contract to become FOX Sports’ lead NFL analyst after he retired, it seemed like an odd fit.
Brady is a marquee name and boasts a bottomless well of football knowledge. But as someone who’s always made every effort to steer away from controversy and admitted he doesn’t actually mean 90% of what he says publicly, there were and are valid questions about how his skills will translate to the broadcast booth.
Some within the television industry, however, believe the newly retired quarterback will thrive in his new post-playing career, according to a report Wednesday from The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch.
It’s unclear exactly when Brady will begin his FOX gig — he isn’t expected to replace current No. 1 color man Greg Olsen on the Super Bowl LVII call next Sunday — but sources Deitch spoke with are buying the 45-year-old’s chances of becoming a standout broadcaster.
From The Athletic:
So what now? Well, I spoke with multiple people on Monday who have been in production meetings with Brady on the TV side. They all believe he will do better at the job than you might expect. Everyone I spoke with said they were impressed by Brady’s ability to communicate football concepts in a clear way. They all said he was opinionated in those meetings. They described him as someone who could be very funny and occasionally profane and came off like a normal person who simply had an irregular, amazing career and life.
“We’ve all seen great athletes go into that position and fail,” said a person who has been in many of those meetings and asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “But my gut reaction is he will be prepared. One big question is you don’t know how critical he will be of other players. That’s always the biggest transition and question for me. But I have seen him be critical in our meetings. He is a likable guy, and I think he’ll be good. Tom has more of a sense of humor than people realize.”
FOX Sports executives were not given a heads-up about Brady’s retirement announcement, according to multiple reports, and it’s unclear how or if the network plans to use him in its Super Bowl coverage.
Brady’s retirement is an unfortunate blow for Olsen, who’s impressed alongside play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt in their first season as FOX’s top NFL booth. Tony Romo’s penchant for inane ramblings on CBS games has only accentuated Olsen’s talent and earned the former NFL tight end high praise during this postseason.
Olsen said he’d understand if FOX chose to replace him with Brady next season, which presumably would result in the former calling lower-tier games, but said he’s going to try his best to make that decision as difficult as possible.
“In regard to Tom, if he comes in and he takes it, I get it,” Olsen told Deitsch. “I don’t ask anyone to feel bad for me. And I’m not going to feel bad for myself. Will I be disappointed? Would I rather sit next to Kevin for the next 20 years? Of course. I’m not going to sit here and sound stupid and be like, ‘You know, just doing this for one year was plenty.’ Like, no, screw that. I’d like to do this for 20 years. I’d like to call 10 Super Bowls.
“Whether that happens or not, I don’t know. I don’t control it. But the second I spend all my energy worrying about what Tom does and worrying about my job security and who’s going to be in my seat, then I’m not going to be very effective. I just don’t know how else to describe it. I’ve come to grips with it, and I’m going to make it hard as hell on them to try to replace me.”
