Fans don’t know what they don’t know about certain aspects of being a sports broadcaster. While Fox’s Greg Olsen gets some feedback on social media, he doesn’t exactly know what fans think the job entails.
Still, he was able to discuss the various intricacies and challenges of his role at length on the Front Office Sports Today podcast.
“I don’t exactly know what fans think the job entails,” he said. “I think what the job does, though, entail is, the aspect of you are kind of constrained by this live TV broadcast, and there’s a lot of things you want to say. There’s a lot of really cool points you’d like to make. There’s a lot — but you’re bound by the referee making an announcement on a penalty. You’re bound by TV timeouts; each time taking a timeout, you break in the action. You’re making a great point, and then all of a sudden, that team goes hurry up, and they don’t huddle, and you got to get out of the way before that ball’s snapped so your partner can tee up the next play.
“Like, all that unpredictability is what makes it so fun, right? Because it’s not just speak for 30 seconds, speak for 30 seconds. You could speak for 45 seconds. You could then have to speak for five seconds. You could be in the middle of a really cool thought, a really good conversation, and then the producers in your ear, ‘We got a two-minute warning, we’re going to break.’
“We don’t just get to talk over the entire game, but you have to do it in a way that’s interesting and doesn’t sound robotic. But you also have to make sure the game is the priority, not just talking all day and then the game’s kind of on in the background. I think that’s the delicate balance that I enjoy.”
Olsen acknowledges occasional errors but emphasizes the ongoing learning curve due to the ever-changing nature of each game. The flow and pace can swing wildly, with games featuring a flurry of penalties or none, at all, heavy run plays that chew up the clock, or pass-heavy offenses that drag games out.
“You’ve got to call the game that happens, and you have to throw away whatever your anticipations are entering the game,” he added. “(They) kind of go out the window once it starts.”
After being pushed out for Tom Brady on Fox’s No. 1 team alongside Kevin Burkhardt, Olsen will be paired with Joe Davis this fall.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.