It’s ironic that Tom Brady would jump straight into FOX’s top broadcast team to begin his career as a co-commentator on NFL broadcasts.
As anyone who has ever listened to a broadcast of a game Brady played in knows, his path to becoming a star quarterback wasn’t quite so smooth. At Michigan, Brady outperformed super-recruit Drew Henson, but Wolverine coach Lloyd Carr was dazzled by Henson’s pedigree and split time between them.
In the NFL, of course, Brady was the Patriots’ sixth-round pick who sat out his first season and only returned to the field when Drew Bledsoe was injured. Being forced to prove himself spurred him on to become the best player in NFL history.
None of this happens on television.
FOX wanted him so badly that they signed him before the end of his playing career and waited until he sat out a year in 2023. During that time, Greg Olsen was the No. 1 co-commentator and, as it turns out, he’s good at it.
But the former tight end has now been demoted to the No. 2 team with Brady on board. Olsen is better than Brady, but like Michigan with Henson, FOX was blinded by Brady’s star power.
The problem with Brady is simple. Because he’s Tom Brady, FOX had to pay him a lot of money – 10 years, $375 million – and if they’re paying him that much, they can’t exactly send him to a Giants-Commanders game.
The crazy thing about the money commentators get is that they have little say in what game someone watches or even if they tune in. It’s not like choosing between Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon. People would watch their favorite team, a game they’ve put money on or a great matchup even if the co-commentator was your uncle imitating Donald Duck.
Most fans don’t know who’s on the broadcast until they tune in to the game. Brady’s debut may have been an exception, given the hype surrounding it and the amount he earns, but that novelty has probably worn off.
But for those tuning in to the Cowboys and Browns, Brady sounded like a guy who should be on the second or third team on FOX. That’s no insult, and he wasn’t bad. But he didn’t sound comfortable yet.
It’s a tough job. You need an innate instinct to know when to jump in and how much you can say in a short window of time without leaving too much silence or drowning out the co-commentator. It’s more improv comedy than natural conversation. It’s harder for athletes to understand where the sweet spot is so as not to be too rudimentary or too technical for the audience.
All of that takes practice and repetition. Commentating on pre-recorded games or live games without a crowd is helpful, but it’s like a quarterback practicing in a red jersey. Unless there’s a real pass rush or a real crowd, it doesn’t really simulate the real game.
Brady’s greatest strength was analyzing a play replay. It felt like he had practiced this and he did a good job of pointing out what he saw and what it meant. On the last play of the first quarter, he quickly assessed that Micah Parsons was in a position to sack Deshaun Watson, just before Parsons did just that.
When he wasn’t sure, Brady wisely chose to hesitate rather than talk too much. Aside from a few “wows” on big plays while Kevin Burkhardt was talking, he didn’t let it faze him. Overall, he got better as the game went on.
But he still has a long way to go before he belongs on a top team. He sounded (understandably) nervous and had a cadence full of odd pauses. He repeated himself and talked too often about effort, energy and fire instead of actual analysis and hasn’t yet figured out where to bring his own experiences and stories into the show.
What is particularly striking is that he stuttered when put in a situation where it would have been obvious to criticize one quarterback or another – Dak Prescott’s struggles in the playoffs and Deshaun Watson’s abysmal performance in Cleveland – and that this was a concern even before Brady’s appearance.
Kevin Burkhardt was good at guiding Brady, asking him smart questions and humanizing him by teasing him about the Tostitos commercial featuring Brady that aired during a break in play.
It will be interesting to see how Brady improves from Week 1 to Week 2, but the real question is how good he can get before FOX features him on its Super Bowl broadcast in February. He still has a lot of time and a long way to go.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
