Al Michaels certainly knows the value of a high-profile sportscaster, but even he seems a little skeptical of Tom Brady’s massive contract with Fox.
Brady stunned nearly everyone when he agreed to what is reportedly a 10-year $375 million contract with Fox to be its lead NFL analyst and a “brand ambassador.” The deal will begin whenever the 44-year-old quarterback decides to retire from playing.
“The Brady deal, I don’t know whether the number is right,” Michaels told Football Morning In America’s Peter King. “I don’t know whether he’s a brand ambassador, whatever that’s supposed to mean. It can’t just be for doing games. It has to be other stuff. In a way, this is just the way it’s gone.”
No one is quite sure what Brady’s “brand ambassador” title consists of. The only thing we do know is that his $375 million contract with Fox won’t pay him to do what he’s best at, which is play football. Throughout his more than two-decades-long career in the NFL, Brady has been praised for his accomplishments on the football field, but he’s never been viewed as having a particularly entertaining personality.
Michaels, meanwhile, almost certainly will never receive a contract that approaches Brady’s deal with Fox, despite being one of the most iconic play-by-play voices in sports history. Brady’s historic contract will kick in while he’s a rookie in the industry who will admittedly have to endure “a lot of growing pains.” Still, Michaels has no issue with other broadcasters earning more than him and continuing to further the industry’s compensation standards.
“I’ve always felt that the ruination of somebody especially if you’re on a team and the guy at the next locker is making $500,000 more than you and you’re all pissed off about that,” Michaels said. “Why? We’re all doing pretty well. Enjoy it. Especially at this point of my life, I mean, great. More power to anybody who can get whatever they get. That’s what the market will bear.”
The 77-year-old Michaels is, indeed, doing pretty well. After transitioning into an emeritus role with NBC following Super Bowl LVI, Michaels signed with Amazon to call Thursday Night Football for roughly the same five-year $75 million contract that landed Joe Buck at ESPN.
