Earlier this year, Dan Le Batard expressed discontent with the idea that Tom Brady would be able to immediately grasp how difficult it is to be in the broadcast booth calling games.
Le Batard received immediate pushback from Mina Kimes and Pablo Torre on Meadowlark Media’s Pablo Torre Finds Out. Both suggested that Brady’s ability as a quarterback and his competitive nature would make a seamless transition to the broadcast booth — and be good at broadcasting.
And while you probably wouldn’t want to bet against Brady, Jon “Boog” Sciambi, the play-by-play voice of the Chicago Cubs, doesn’t see it as Kimes and Torre do. Sciambi provided significant pushback to the idea that Brady would unquestionably be good once he officially makes his debut in the Fox booth alongside Kevin Burkhardt.
“Smart people say dumb things,” Sciambi said.
He called, texted, and sent a voice memo to Torre, as he “mildly berated him,” letting him know that he and Kimes delivered one of the worst takes he’s ever heard. And Sciambi double-downed on that opinion during a recent Pablo Torre Finds Out appearance.
The voice of the Chicago Cubs, Jon “Boog” Sciambi, took major issue with @PabloTorre and @minakimes claiming Tom Brady will be good in the broadcast booth without question. 👀😳
“That has nothing to do with him playing quarterback! … You think just because he can process, that… pic.twitter.com/c3cGrNlsrq
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) May 14, 2024
“It’s hard to be an analyst, and the idea that — look, if you’re betting on it, more often than not, these guys come to become color analysts, they’re not very good,” Sciambi said. “And there are so many reasons for it. I would say No. 1; they’re not going to respect it and put that work into it that they put into their game. But the next part that I’d say you guys were missing is just this idea of, like, when Tom Brady’s playing the other team, he doesn’t know the first and last name of all 11 on the other side. He knows the corner’s bad, and he can pick on him, but he doesn’t know his first and last name.
“When the ball’s thrown to him, and he’s broadcasting a game, he’s got to say his first and last name. And accessing that is a completely different skill set than the idea of ‘Oh, he’s open. I can throw it to him.’ Like, it’s completely different.”
“Where I was baffled was by your take, but he also has the most sophisticated high-speed processing of the mechanics of the game: the Xs and the Os,” said Torre. “He’s dissecting a defense in a booth the way that he would presumably on the field.
“And then he’s gotta say it, and that has nothing to do with him playing quarterback,” Sciambi added. “If in the booth, they allowed him to throw the ball — I’m not saying, look, he might be good. But I was annoyed that you guys gave him the benefit of the doubt that you think just because he can process that, he can process and spit back out. No, we’ll see if he can.”
Torre acknowledged that he underestimated something that’s now difficult to contradict Sciambi — skill transferability directly.
“The hardest part of all of this would be, can you diagnose the play?” asked Torre. “Can you do the prophecy thing, which (Tony) Romo was famed for until he stopped being famed for? But that to me feels like the unicorn skill — like tell me the future.”
“But for it to be executed at the highest, highest level, it’s two parts — it’s diagnosing and articulating,” said Sciambi. “And the diagnosing part certainly replicates what he does in his former job. The articulating has nothing to do with it and is a completely different skill. And to prognosticate that he will be good at it, we’re all just kind of guessing.”
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