One and done for Tom Brady at Fox?
Not so fast, say sports media insiders Andrew Marchand and John Ourand. In their latest conversation on the Marchand Sports Media podcast, both put a stake in the ground predicting that the new lead NFL on Fox game analyst will return for the second season of his record 10-year, $375 million contract.
“I can’t imagine that he’ll do the Super Bowl and make it a one and done,” Ourand said.
Brady got terrible marks from most NFL fans early in his first season calling marquee games alongside Kevin Burkhardt. Even notorious Boston sports superfan Bill Simmons dubbed the season a disaster and encouraged Brady to start from scratch with his preparation midway through the season.
But recently, when given opportunities to weigh in on controversies surrounding Daniel Jones in New York or his former head coach Bill Belichick taking a college football job, Brady has earned more praise. While those moments often sound like a podcast breaking out mid-broadcast, they at least give Brady something to hang his hat on.
Yet now that he has been approved as a part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, Brady is subject to strong limitations as a broadcaster and has reportedly drawn the ire of other owners.
Whereas Tony Romo is great at predictive play-calling, Troy Aikman is selectively critical and Cris Collinsworth loves to highlight the unheralded stars, maybe Tom Brady can become almost a studio analyst in the booth. Still, he needs to improve at the minutiae and rhythms of calling a game to deliver better broadcasts for Fox.
In spite of all that, and perhaps due to his in-season improvement, both Marchand and Ourand agreed Brady would be back.
“If I had a guess, I say he’s back,” Marchand said. “But that’s not a strong [take].”
According to two of the most plugged in guys in sports media, the most famous NFL announcer ever could be around at least another year.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.