Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt Credit: Fox
FoxNFLBy Sean Keeley on

Whenever Fox cut to broadcasters Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady before and during Super Bowl LIX, they stood before a green-screen video of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street at night. Unlike the real French Quarter thoroughfare, it was shown as empty and sterile, devoid of the energy and excitement that we think of when we picture it, especially when the sun goes down.

It was an apt metaphor for Fox’s broadcast of the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. While the game was a blowout, the lack of energy in the broadcasting booth and visual production made it an unmemorable Super Bowl presentation.

Fox understandably focused much of its energy on showcasing Brady, their $375-million superstar. But despite the improvement over his rookie broadcasting season, the legendary quarterback backslid into bad habits, offering little substance and even less excitement for much of the evening.

Let’s examine each aspect of Fox’s broadcast more closely to understand where things went wrong and identify the bright spots in its production.

Production/Graphics

New NFL on Fox scorebug during Super Bowl LIX
Credit: “NFL on Fox” via Andrew Joseph on X

We have to start with the scorebug. Change rarely goes over well regarding scorebugs and on-screen graphics. But, wow, so many people hated Fox’s new scorebug.

I think I understand what they’re trying to achieve. Scorebugs and bottom lines have become very convoluted and include so much information nowadays. This version strips things down to the basics and emphasizes the most obvious information: team and score.

Some might appreciate the can’t-miss-it blockiness, but it comes off as big and brutish, somehow filling the screen just as much but with less info.

The other problem is that it almost seemed like they forgot that all that other information was actually important. So when player names and stats appear, they’d appear in basic white font in the corner of the screen, looking like an afterthought. To say nothing of the weird play clock that appeared randomly on the screen when shown.

Some retooling and rethinking are in order before next season.

Otherwise, the aforementioned Bourbon Street broadcasting backdrop sounded like a good idea in theory but really sucked the life out of the visual presentation. They would have been better off doing it once and letting us see Burkhardt and Brady in the booth for the rest of the game. Or maybe they could have done a version where people walked in the background. It’s not like anyone at home thought they were actually calling the game from the French Quarter.

The camerawork during Super Bowl LIX wasn’t overly flashy, but it didn’t need to be. The SkyCam came in handy, offering plenty of smooth 90-degree and 180-degree views that helped give the dull game a little life. While the Super Bowl is an exercise in excess, they never overdid it with celebrity crowd shots. However, the moment towards the end of the game when cameras lingered on Rupert Murdoch, and Burkhardt said it was “good to see him” cause “we’re all here because of him” was a little too grovel-ly for our tastes.

Pregame/Halftime/Postgame Show

Credit: Fox

This was old hat for the Fox NFL Sunday crew, and they gave you exactly what you expected from the six-man desk. Time was limited for them, especially at halftime, so it was mostly platitudes and generic football speak, but then again, you’re not expecting much more than that from this venerable crew.

That said, you might have wanted a bit more insight from the team, especially at halftime when the Chiefs were down 24-0 and seemed to be without answers. Almost every person on the panel said the same thing. “The Chiefs need to make something happen.” “All it takes is one play.” Jimmy Johnson and Howie Long were the only analysts to provide any real insight, offering up actual possibilities for how those things might happen. While Johnson teased a potential departure, Long’s steady hand is what’ll be missed most when it’s gone. 

Bradshaw took his usual spot as the host of the postgame presentation. In years past, he’s had some snafus here. This time, except for one time he spoke over Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, he was on-point and mostly let Lurie, Nick Sirianni, and Jalen Hurts say their piece.

Play-By-Play Announcer Kevin Burkhardt

If there was a star of the Fox broadcast, it was Kevin Burkhardt. That should hardly be a surprise. The seasoned veteran is calling his second Super Bowl, and, as he’s done all season long, he did yeoman’s work putting Brady on his back all evening.

Burkhardt didn’t have too many shock-and-awe calls, mainly because the game itself was a blowout from the jump. But he did meet the moment when needed. More importantly, he did everything he could to drag his dull broadcasting partner towards becoming a listenable duo. Burkhardt was quick to set Brady up with softballs, even if many of them went unhit, and he brought context to the situation when it called for it.

Fox’s lead NFL voice has solidified himself in that role, regardless of who he’s in the booth with.

Game Analyst Tom Brady

Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod summed up Brady’s performance in his review following the game.

“In a vacuum, Brady is just fine as a broadcaster, the type of analyst you wouldn’t bat an eye at if he was calling a second-tier Big Ten game on a random Saturday afternoon in October,” wrote Axelrod. “Except this wasn’t a random Saturday in the fall; it was the freaking Super Bowl.”

I echo that sentiment. Brady wasn’t terrible by any stretch, but for most of the night, I dare anyone to say that anything he said enhanced the game. The legendary quarterback was timid from the start and seemed a step behind. There were long, noticeable silences between Burkhardt’s setup and Brady’s addition. Still, even with that extra time, he would offer bland, generic commentary on what we’d just seen or offer notions that lacked basic awareness. And the most he seemed capable of offering in big moments was “Wow.” 

While it was noteworthy that Brady seemed willing to call out penalties that he disagreed with, he seemed incapable of criticizing Patrick Mahomes, who played arguably the worst game of his professional career. For all of the Mahomes praise that NFL viewers are subjected to across the season, it would have been really worthwhile to hear the GOAT quarterback explain why this quarterback was struggling.

Where was the insight that comes from playing in 10 Super Bowls? Where was the knowledge of what it felt like to be in Mahomes’ or Hurts’ position? Where was the strategy that Brady imparted so well just two days earlier on FS1’s The Herd, where he held court and sounded like the incredibly smart football wizard that he is?

While Brady improved throughout the season, he’d seemingly regressed on the biggest stage. He fell into all of the traps from his tepid debut. It was all the more shocking because if there’s anything Tom Brady can do better than anyone else, it’s talk about what it’s like to play in a Super Bowl. But for most of the night, when Burkhardt would tee him up for a great anecdote or opportunity to provide insight, he sounded embarrassed and flustered. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the pressure to perform lessened, and he loosened up and started offering up interesting bon mots about how Super Bowl losses impact you.

It’s completely reasonable to say it was unrealistic to think he would master broadcasting in one NFL season. Still, Fox wrapped its NFL and Super Bowl coverage around Brady and presented his broadcasting work as one of the key reasons to tune in. They made a certain kind of promise to the viewer. Instead, we got a C+ football broadcaster who sounded like he’d be more at home calling the Boca Raton Bowl, not the Super Bowl.

Sideline Reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi

Pros like Andrews and Rinaldi always do a commendable job, and this game was no different. If anything, we could have used more of them during the game. As two-time defending champion Kansas City was getting blown out, it would have been great to get some insight into what it was like on the sidelines. Given Brady’s flatness for most of the night, a fun pop-in or two by Andrews could have given things a little zing.

After the game, Rinaldi gave Eagles coach Nick Sirianni the space to speak from the heart and set him up with the perfect heartstring-tugging question as his family approached. Andrews was solid with quarterback Hurts, though her attempt to create a special moment by referencing falling confetti fell flat as he just wasn’t in that mindset.

Rules Analyst Mike Pereira

Much like the Chiefs’ offense, Pereira was a bit of a non-factor for most of the evening. He disagreed with Brady about an early penalty call against KC, though the interaction didn’t add much to the broadcast.

The one thing that stood out about Pereira was the moment late in the game when he chose not to do what he was there to do.

With a little under 10 minutes to play and Kansas City desperately trying to get something going, Mahomes was clocked in the face during a strip-sack fumble that killed their momentum. While watching a replay of the non-call, Brady threw it to Pereira to find out if the former NFL referee thought it was a possession issue. After a long silence, Pererais offered a half-hearted explanation that sounded like he wasn’t actually paying attention. Alrighty.

Fox doesn’t get the Super Bowl back until 2029, which is plenty of time to work out some of the issues from this one. Though, in reality, it really comes down to Tom Brady and whether or not he’s more polished by then (assuming he’s still calling games by then).

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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