As Greg Olsen prepares for a season as the No. 2 Fox NFL analyst, he wouldn’t have been opposed to remaining in the top booth alongside Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady.
When Troy Aikman departed ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth and Fox named Tom Brady his eventual replacement, Olsen was tasked with keeping the chair warm. Olsen was Fox’s lead NFL analyst for two seasons, but he always knew it was likely temporary, with Brady waiting in the wings. There was, however, a potential path to Olsen remaining part of Fox’s No. 1 broadcast team: a threesome.
Olsen recently spoke to Barrett Media’s Derek Futterman and admitted he wouldn’t have closed the door on the idea of joining Brady and Burkhardt in the booth, although it doesn’t appear the network ever seriously considered it.
“I think that’s a conversation that if it was something that was even on the table, we would have definitely leaned into and considered and talked through what the mechanics and the situation of that looks like,” Olsen said. “I’m not one to just close doors without at least knowing what’s behind them. So yeah, that’s not something I would have been opposed to by any stretch. It just never was worth much consideration just because it was never really a possibility.”
Others outside the network wondered if Fox should have opted for a three-person booth after Olsen received rave reviews for his call of Super Bowl LVII and his two seasons as the network’s lead NFL analyst. But if Fox is paying Brady $375 million to be its top analyst, it shouldn’t need a second analyst on the same broadcast. If anything, a three-person booth would have made it harder for Brady to break through the chemistry Burkhardt and Olsen already built.
This, however, was before the NFL placed severe restrictions on Brady’s access to teams because of his pending bid to become part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. The NFL recently announced that Brady will not be able to criticize officials or teams and will be restricted from receiving access to team facilities, players, or coaches, preventing him from attending in-person or remote productions.
Restricting Brady’s ability to prepare for a broadcast or criticize the officials will severely hamper his ability to be a successful analyst. Maybe Fox would have given more consideration to a three-person booth if they were aware of the restrictions that were going to be placed on Brady. Because Olsen could have potentially filled the holes that will be created by the limitations Brady will endure.
