This time next year, Tom Brady will be making his long anticipated return to the Super Bowl — not as a quarterback, but rather as a broadcaster.
Just hours ahead of Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network provided an update on Brady’s broadcasting future, which included the news that the 7-time Super Bowl champion his preparing for his next career exactly how you might expect he would.
Writes Rapoport:
Sources say the plan is still for Brady to be a top analyst at FOX. On his Let’s Go! podcast on SirusXM, Brady recently said: “I’ve got a big broadcasting job that’s going to start in September. I’m already working hard on trying to make sure I’m ready for that opportunity.”
As for how that’s happening, sources say Brady is preparing the exact same way he prepared for football — with obsessive detail and a fierce and competitive desire to be the best. He’s spent countless hours doing research and studying not just the game, but the TV world.
He’s talked to a large group of experts in the TV business, from Erin Andrews to Stephen A. Smith and anyone in between. He’s also traveled out to the FOX Studios a handful of times this year, doing dry runs with Kevin Burkhardt, who is set to be his play-by-play broadcast partner on FOX’s No. 1 team. They are said to already have great chemistry, with the network looking forward to Brady taking center stage
Brady had previously revealed to The Pat McAfee Show that he has already participated in in-person rehearsals with Burkhardt, showing a commitment to his broadcasting career that many questioned whether he’d have when Fox first announced his hiring. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Rapoport’s report is that he states that the plan is still for Brady to serve as Fox’s top analyst — or rather, the fact that Rapoport felt compelled to report that that’s still the plan.
At this point, all signs still point to Brady being in the booth next season, which will culminate with him calling Super Bowl LIX alongside Burkhardt. And as long as that’s still the plan, it will be interesting to see the ripple effect that follows, particularly when it comes to the future of Fox’s current top analyst, Greg Olsen.
[NFL.com]
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.