The Fox Sports Super Bowl 57 stage at State Farm Stadium. Feb 7, 2023; Phoenix, AZ, USA; The Fox Sports Super Bowl 57 stage at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It’s a bit hard to believe that Fox won’t want their $375 million-dollar man at Super Bowl LVII but they’ve now gone out of their way to confirm that not only won’t Tom Brady show up in the broadcasting booth but he also won’t be making any appearances period.

When Brady officially announced his retirement from the NFL last week, many wondered if the timing would open up the opportunity for him to take part in Fox’s Super Bowl programming, even if it was just a cameo of sorts.

To be fair, the reports have been pretty clear for a while now that Brady won’t be on your TV set this Sunday. And when Tom himself said that he wouldn’t actually start working for Fox until 2024, that poured cold water on a lot of assumptions as well.

However, just to drive things home even further, Fox Sports President of Production & Operations/Executive Producer Brad Zager told reporters on Tuesday that Brady will not be appearing in the studio or the booth for the Super Bowl.

“He’s not going to be on our set,” Zager said during Fox’s media day. “He won’t be in the booth.”

The NY Post’s Andrew Marchand also noted that Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks said the same thing on this week’s episode of The Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast, which will come out on Wednesday.

There’s probably still some wiggle room in Zager’s statement for a pre-recorded Brady appearance, but it would be silly at this point to be so adamant that he’s not involved only to have him appear anyway.

All we know for sure is that Greg Olsen must be thrilled.

[NY Post]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.