While much of the discussion around Tom Brady’s reported 10-year, $375-million contract with Fox is about him serving as the network’s lead NFL analyst, there are other dimensions to that deal. Brady has also appeared during the network’s upfront presentations and in a variety of ads and social media clips for the network. And on Sunday, he showed up to the Fox NFL Kickoff pregame show where he reunited with former teammates Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, both of whom are regular cast members on the show.
On “Fox NFL Kickoff” this morning, Rob Gronkowski brought in “a friend”…Tom Brady. The end of the clip has Charissa Thompson saying “We gave all the money to Tom,” and Brady saying “Sorry, not sorry.” pic.twitter.com/7QrQVBKTlL
— The Comeback NFL (@TheComebackNFL) December 8, 2024
Brady then made a further appearance on the flagship pregame show Fox NFL Sunday in the following hour, where he discussed some matchups (including the Buffalo Bills-Los Angeles Rams game he would call later in the day), take part in a trivia show with Edelman and Gronkowski, and threw a pass to Gronk (who ran a route against Michael Strahan and knocked him down).
“He’s mitigated a lot of risks this year by his style of play.”@TomBrady discusses the improvements Josh Allen has shown so far this season ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Jz6dkGuJWr
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 8, 2024
How well do the FOXBoROS know each other? Let’s find out!@TomBrady | @RobGronkowski | @Edelman11 | @Patriots pic.twitter.com/8DPSSQPkEQ
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 8, 2024
Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski, one more time.
(This time in the @NFLonFOX studio) 🏈🎯📺🎙️pic.twitter.com/x5BaEK4xlU
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 8, 2024
It’s not uncommon to have NFL broadcast booth announcers appear on pregame shows. But those appearances are usually virtual (or hologram in Brady’s case), with most NFL stadiums being a long way from where the pregame shows take place. The exception has usually been in the rare cases where NFL pregame shows do on-location shows.
But there was an unusual opportunity here with Brady calling Bills-Rams. It’s only 11 miles from Fox’s Los Angeles studio lot to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, and Google Maps estimates it as a half-hour drive even in traffic. So it made sense for Fox to get a little more on-camera time out of their $375-million man, especially around reuniting him with his former teammates who regularly work on their pregame shows.
The other interesting part of this is how it relates to Fox’s overall strategy with Brady. As Fox Sports president of marketing Robert Gottlieb told Sports Business Journal‘s Mollie Cahillane earlier this year around their first ad promoting Brady (which debuted during their Sept. 7 Texas-Michigan game, a day before Brady’s first NFL on Fox regular-season game), the company is eager to work him in where it makes sense for them to do so.
“It definitely fits our company strategy, right? Whenever we make a big investment in talent or a property like the World Cup or ‘Big Noon Saturday,’ marketing, production, PR, sales — we’re all in lockstep when we have a priority. This was obviously a very big priority.”
Gottlieb noted the company looked for ways for Brady to come to the booth in an “authentic” way — and one that was also relevant. “That was a challenge, because we didn’t want to do comedy, we wanted to reach for something a little bit different and more unexpected,” said Gottlieb, citing independent agency partner Someplace. “Fox was built around football and the NFL. We started in ‘94 and we were built for one thing only.”
But Gottlieb understands Fox is now in a new era. “Our investment in Tom — I’m not talking about from a financial standpoint — but from what it means to our company and how important the NFL is to us in Fox Sports, and to get that right and be the category leader is definitely an unofficial mission statement for us,” he said.
So far, the response to Brady in the lead booth has been mixed at best. And there are questions about how long he plans to announce games, especially with the restrictions the NFL has placed on him given his part ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders and his desire to be involved there. Fox has maintained they want him to keep calling games, and has reportedly worked with him on improvement. But his future remains at least somewhat unclear for now. Thus, it’s interesting to see him doing some extra Fox work on the Sunday pregame shows, especially as he hasn’t really featured on their mid-week coverage.
[Awful Announcing on X]
