It’s been nearly 2½ years since Fox Sports announced that Tom Brady would be their lead color commentator, as the seven-time Super Bowl champion signed a 10-year, $375 million deal making him the highest-paid sports commentator in history. He would play his final NFL season in 2022 and take what amounted to a gap year in 2023 away from both the football field and the broadcasting booth.
Brady is slated to make his debut this season, with the first game being a Week 1 tilt between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns.
“I actually had a crazy dream last night,” Brady said. “The Super Bowl was coming up, and I had yet to do a game, and Fox had it. And they called me up, and they’re like, ‘Hey, Dude, you’re gonna do the Super Bowl.’ And it was that day, and I was like, ‘That’s kind of [expletive] weird, though.’”
“The Chiefs are in it, and I know the Chiefs and the 49ers are in it, and I know them. So, like, I could probably do it. And literally, I like snapped out of it.”
While spontaneously calling a game as big as the Super Bowl is something Brady thinks he could handle, he admits that preparation is what’s most important for his new job, just like his old one. He’s certainly had lots of time to analyze all aspects of commentating and discussed how the lengthy time period from when he signed with Fox to calling his first game has helped him.
“It’s been 30 months since I actually committed to doing this,” Brady said. “Just got time to really take it all in and put myself in a position to understand what it really takes to be successful with this.
“It’s been, I think, a lot of preparation to get to this point. So, I think now it’s how does the prep actually translate to a real-life game? I think when I see that red light go on, I think it’s pretty exciting for me to be like, ‘Here we go.’”
With the Super Bowl rotation amongst the current NFL broadcasters of Fox, CBS, and NBC, Brady won’t have to wait too long until he wakes up on Super Bowl morning with an actual game to call. Fox will broadcast Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9, 2025, and Brady will take part in his 11th Super Bowl in the broadcast booth, after 10 as a player.
Since he would be affiliated with a team, Brady will not be permitted to perform many of the normal broadcasting duties that commentators do the week before calling a game. The three-time MVP won’t be allowed to attend production meetings, whether in person or online, and he may be barred from team facilities.
Thus, he wouldn’t be able to witness practice or talk to players and coaches, which is where broadcasters get a lot of their information. These restrictions would only apply to Brady, due to his ties with a rival club. They wouldn’t apply to the rest of the Fox broadcasting crew.
Additionally, just as a player, coach, executive, or owner is normally fined for publicly criticizing an official, Brady could be disciplined if he does the same while calling a game.
There is precedent for an individual affiliated with a team being subjected to these kinds of rules while serving as a broadcaster, and ironically, that individual happens to be the person Brady is replacing. Greg Olsen was bumped from Fox’s top broadcasting crew to make room for Brady, and the former tight end called games for Fox as an active NFL player in 2017.
Olsen was still playing for the Carolina Panthers at the time but was on injured reserve when he served as a guest analyst for a Minnesota Vikings–Los Angeles Rams game. Because the Panthers had an upcoming game against the Vikings, Olsen wasn’t given the standard broadcasting access, though he still managed to call the game.
It turns out that Brady’s “crazy dream” about calling an NFL game without the proper preparation may actually come true this year, pending his Raiders’ ownership bid.
