Tom Brady may not have blown down the doors of NFL media in his first season calling games for Fox, but he and broadcast partner Kevin Burkhardt have also been dealt a brutal hand by the schedulers.
So far this season, as Brady took the baton from Greg Olsen as Fox’s No. 1 game analyst in the first year of an unprecedented 10-year, $375 million contract, nearly every game Brady has called has been a blowout. The average margin of victory in Brady-called games this season more than two touchdowns. It’s a brutal stroke of bad luck for Brady the analyst, who clearly is in need of live game reps to improve and feel the rhythms of the booth at a higher level.
While Fox gluing Brady and Burkhardt to the Dallas Cowboys early in the season got attention, bad games have been far more of a burden for the duo than America’s team. In fact, as the Cowboys’ season faded, Brady and Burkhardt haven’t called a Dallas game since Week 6. But with No. 2 tandem Joe Davis and Greg Olsen on the call for Dallas-Washington in Week 12, the NFC East battle delivered one of the most gripping games of the year.
No matter how hard Fox tries to place Brady and Burkhardt on a great game, it’s hard to predict how the external factors will tilt. With its America’s Game of the Week national early-evening slot, Fox typically has a pair of good teams facing off. But the network got stuck with a Dak Prescott injury in Week 6 and a Brock Purdy injury in Week 12. In Week 4, an inconsistent Philadelphia Eagles team mustered just 227 yards of total offense and lost by 17 to Tampa Bay.
These issues arise for every network across all sports. Within the high-floor business of NFL broadcasting, bad games are the one risk.
Fortunately for Fox, bad games don’t always lead to low viewership. Through the first two months of the season, Fox was averaging more than 25 million viewers for America’s Game of the Week. A 10-point win by Detroit over Green Bay in Week 9 brought in more than 24 million viewers.
For Brady as a broadcaster, though, this could be a problem. Calling blowouts requires its own skill set, but often in those spots, Burkhardt resorts to interviewing Brady. The games become like an alt-cast where Brady and Burkhardt chatter over the top of meaningless on-field action.
Brady needs experience meeting the moment. When he and Burkhardt call the Super Bowl in February, they need to bring hype, clarity and perspective to the broadcast no matter how the game goes.
To keep the attention of 100 million-plus viewers, many of them casual snackers and bettors tuning into the Super Bowl as a curiosity, Brady has to be better than he has been so far. Getting stuck with poor matchups isn’t helping him.
The next few weeks of matchups are a mixed bag, which could lead Fox to get creative. Brady is back with the Cowboys again on Thanksgiving, going up against the hapless New York Giants, who just cut their starting QB. Purdy’s health could determine whether Brady is back on his hometown 49ers the following Sunday. Week 15 could see Brady on the call for a Pennsylvania slugfest between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. If Fox puts its top tandem on a Saturday game in Week 16, the Steelers will be back on the schedule in a rubber match against Baltimore. Otherwise, America’s Game of the Week will feature the Vikings and Seahawks. Week 17 is screwed by Netflix’s Christmas doubleheader. The final week of the season isn’t scheduled yet.
Fox should probably book those flights to Baltimore ASAP for Brady, Burkhardt and the reporting team of Erin Andrews and Tom Verducci, just to get that chance on Steelers-Ravens.
As we saw with Olsen and Davis in Washington over the weekend, the difference between a joke and a classic is random. But Brady may well finish the season without the thrill of calling a truly great, important game. Just ask Jim Nantz and Tony Romo how it feels to get that opportunity — like they had with the Hail Mary finish for Washington-Chicago and the vintage Chiefs-Bills game in Week 11.
Brady is in a unique spot as a broadcaster, but whatever else viewers can throw at him, the randomness of the NFL season has hurt him as much as anything.
