No one knows better than us that when it comes to major broadcasters and announcers, you’ll always be able to find someone who hates them.
Every weekend, national broadcasters like Tony Romo, Greg Olsen, Joe Buck, Ian Eagle, Kevin Harlan, Troy Aikman, and Cris Collinsworth get in the booth to call NFL games.
Every weekend, social media is littered with complaints about how each and every one of them “sucks.” Even Harlan!
This is nothing new, of course. It comes with the territory of being a broadcaster. The higher your profile, the more of a target you become, fairly or not.
We certainly dole out plenty of announcer criticism here, but we also try to hand out praise when it’s deserved. We also keep an eye on how others react to and discuss major broadcasters like the ones mentioned above.
Tom Brady is a unique case. In his first season calling games for Fox, the former quarterback entered the booth with astronomical hype. That was partially due to who he is and partially due to the mindboggling amount of money Fox committed to him without having ever worked in a broadcasting booth before.
Invariably, his debut was rocky and met with criticism. Perhaps too much. When he seemed to right the ship in the following weeks, he was showered with praise. Perhaps too much.
In the weeks since, Brady has settled into a fairly low-key rhythm. He’s mostly called the same teams (Cowboys, Buccaneers, 49ers, and Packers). He’s had a couple of notable moments here and there. He’s developed some odd tics out of the Tony Romo noisemaker playbook. He’s offered a little bit of criticism but mostly calls the game like a rookie broadcaster would be expected to.
In short, he’s been a mostly unspectacular NFL analyst so far.
Scour social media and you’ll see the usual complaints about how he’s boring, robotic, and doesn’t add anything to the broadcast. That’s normal. The same goes for Romo, Aikman, and Olsen. But those guys also have plenty of defenders singing their praises and enjoying what they bring to the game. Perhaps it’s anecdotal but you don’t see that quite as much for Brady. Furthermore, you don’t really see a lot of articles from sports media insiders or NFL writers singing Brady’s praises for the way he breaks down a play or adds value to the broadcast (though there have been some critical takes here and there).
Maybe more people are waiting to see how he performs in front of a national audience on Thanksgiving. Or maybe we’re all waiting until the Super Bowl when we’ll have a complete season to look back on before making full judgments.
That just seems strange given the wall-to-wall coverage Brady received leading up to his debut and around the subsequent games. It feels less like everyone eventually agreed he was good at this and moved on and more like everyone lost interest because there isn’t much there. And if they lost interest in Fox’s golden boy a third of the way through his first season on their top NFL team, what does that say about their investment in him?
On this week’s episode of The Ringer Fantasy Football Show, Danny Kelly innocently brought up that he thought Brady was “a little bit better” this past weekend and Craig Horlbeck immediately rebutted, saying “Brady stinks” and launching into an imitation of his milquetoast critiques in a yell-speaking voice. Co-host Danny Heifetz agreed that Brady just sounds unnatural when calling a game and even Kelly had to backtrack somewhat.
@ringerfantasyfootball How is Brady this bad at announcing?? 😂 #nfl #tombrady #brady #tombradyannoucing #nfltiktok ♬ original sound – Ringer Fantasy Football Show
The interaction really seemed to speak to this feeling out there surrounding Brady the broadcaster. It’s as if we’re all aware of how stilted and robotic he sounds in the booth but we’re letting that hover beneath the surface just out of sight until someone else mentions it first.
Right now it feels like no one wants to call attention to it because, for some reason, we all kinda feel bad for the mega-rich, handsome, seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback who is just kinda mid as a broadcaster.
