Tom Brady isn’t the only former AFC East quarterback moving up the ranks for the NFL on Fox. His rivalry with former New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez now extends to the broadcast booth.
In an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show ahead of the NFL Divisional round, Sanchez explained why he’s “gotta” believe he’s a better broadcaster than Brady while detailing his professional relationship with Brady at Fox so far.
“I hope Tom would say the same thing, but I feel like if you’re playing quarterback or you’re going to compete at anything, you’ve gotta feel like you’re the best or you shouldn’t be doing it,” Sanchez said.
“That’s just kind of the way we grew up. When you step into the booth, when you step in between the white lines, you step on the court, you’re the baddest dude out there. If you don’t think like that, it’s not gonna go well and it’s not worth your time. So of course I think I can do this better than anybody, I’m sure Troy Aikman thinks that, I’m sure Tom Brady thinks that.
“And at the end of the day too when it comes to this announcing game, it’s a little bit different than as a quarterback, you have a record next to your name, you have a completion percentage, you throw for yards, touchdowns, you get all these stats. Well as an announcer, you get a bunch of opinions about either you’re good or you’re not. Well what makes you good? I don’t know … it’s pretty subjective.”
Sanchez added that Fox does a great job fostering a collaborative trust between its announcers, from Brady down. When Sanchez and Brady crossed paths late in the regular season at a workout, they exchanged notes on the New Orleans Saints.
While Sanchez and Brady duked it out in the AFC East for years and are sharpening their color commentary skills at Fox now, that didn’t stop Brady from rehashing Sanchez’s infamous sideline hot dog on the Eagles-Packers broadcast this weekend.
Sanchez retold that story as well with Patrick. In a hungry daze, Sanchez begged a ball boy to go to the concession stand for a snack, only for the broadcast crew to catch him calorie-packing on the bench.
If nothing else, Brady reminding the world of the incident should only spur their friendly back and forth to a new level.
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.