This Matchup Would Have Been Perfect For Tom Brady’s First Patriots Broadcast

New England Patriots icon Tom Brady officially has a good amount of his schedule confirmed for his debut season as an NFL broadcaster.

The former Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback joins Kevin Burkhardt on FOX’s No. 1 broadcast team with several highlight NFL games to call.

One question that remains is when Brady will call a game featuring one of the two franchises he brought a Super Bowl (more than one for New England) to as a player. When it comes to the Patriots, one matchup just seemed to make sense.

The Patriots visit the San Francisco 49ers in Week 4 of the season. The game is set to air on FOX. The scenario makes sense for Brady to broadcast a New England game for the first time.

While Brady won six Super Bowl titles and built his future Hall of Fame career with the Patriots, the 46-year-old grew up in California cheering for the 49ers as a devoted fan. Why not put Brady on the call for the matchup?

Putting the No. 1 FOX team on the game, in some ways, could be logistically doable as well. There’s only four games in the 4/4:25 p.m. ET window on Sept. 29 with two games on FOX, where the Washington Commanders and Arizona Cardinals also have a broadcast with the network.

Sure, the Brady-Burkhardt team could be moved to the 1 p.m. window for a better matchup. Here’s what FOX controls in that window in Week 4:

– Los Angeles Rams @ Chicago Bears
– Philadelphia Eagles @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
– Cincinnati Bengals @ Carolina Panthers
– New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons

So, will Brady get to call the Patriots-49ers game in a battle of two meaningful franchises to the three-time NFL MVP?

Unfortunately, it’s almost certainly not going to happen.

Week 4 is a “FOX NFL Singleheader” — meaning the network will not be a featured broadcast in the late window. That week goes to CBS, which will likely air the Kansas City Chiefs against the Los Angeles Chargers to a national audience. As a result, that all but rules out the No. 1 FOX team being on the call of the Patriots-49ers game set for a 4:05 p.m. kickoff.

The Patriots have six games on FOX in the first 12 weeks of the 2024 NFL season. Looking through those broadcast schedules, the best and earliest chance the Patriots would have in landing Brady on the call would come in Week 5 at Gillette Stadium against the Miami Dolphins.

The Patriots played in front of FOX’s No. 1 broadcast team (at the time comprised of Burkhardt and Greg Olsen) just once during the 2023 season in a 38-3 road loss to the Dallas Cowboys.