FOX made the splashiest NFL broadcasting hire in years when they inked Tom Brady to a reported 10-year, $375 million deal to be their new lead NFL game analyst. Brady took the 2023 season off to prepare, but with very few reps in the booth, there was nothing that could get him fully settled into his new role until he had to call a real regular season game.
That happened for the first time on Sunday when the Cowboys beat the Browns in Cleveland, and the results were mixed. There were moments where Brady’s football knowledge shined, but he also seemed to struggle finding his rhythm to get his thoughts out in the flow of the game. He also had an awkward moment with Mike Pereira that only added to the feeling he was uncomfortable and out of place, and plenty of fans wondered if FOX had made a mistake given how good Greg Olsen was in that lead booth.
That’s not something we can know of one game, and Brady should get more comfortable in his new role as he gets more reps. That’s what his longtime Patriots teammate (and current FOX colleague) Rob Gronkowski expects, as he joined Kay Adams and offered a fair assessment of Brady’s first broadcast.
Gronk compared Brady in the booth to a No. 1 pick at quarterback in his first game, where there were clearly some jitters and things to fix but he ultimately delivered. It’s a good comparison, as Brady seemed a little antsy early on, trying to get all his thoughts out as quickly as possible, but settles in some later in the game — it helped that the pace slowed once Dallas was up big and both teams were just trying to get to the end of the game.
The key for Brady to be good in the booth is learning to self edit. He’s got a lot of things he wants to say but you can’t get them all in during the broadcast, and he’ll have to learn where he has time to fit more analysis in and where to keep it short. That’s a matter of learning the game flow, and that comes with reps. He should be able to figure that out but it comes with reps, just like a young player, and given he’s such a big name and on such a big contract, he will face plenty of criticism as he gets settled.