Tom Brady Joins Fox Sports Eventually
Well after losing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to ESPN I guess Fox had to make the big play for the future to keep up with Tony Romo and the SNF crew. They managed to land the living legend himself…sort of. Tom Brady will join Fox Sports as a TV analyst. He will be the color guy next to Kevin Burkhardt. He will be paid 375 Million over 10 years. He will do this…when he finally decides he doesn’t want to play anymore. He’s still the Tampa QB right now and for the foreseeable future. Thankfully we won’t have to watch him in the booth for a while at this rate.
I have to admit I was surprised to see the news. Brady didn’t strike me as the TV analyst type and I’m surprised he agreed to it. I saw him as more the Michael Jordan type, the investor boy who sticks around the sport and works his way up the chain of the executive side of the operations and starts owning a team or something. Not that this particular job prevents him from doing exactly that and it might genuinely be his plan, but Brady never seemed like the get on TV and spout stuff type. Brady is good on camera, his recent years on social media have proven that, but his image also feels very tightly controlled and scripted, and being a color commentator kind of requires more ability to operate on the fly.
He’ll probably be good at it from an insight perspective. The dude probably forgot more about football than most of us have collectively learned. He’ll know exactly what defenses are doing on any play. How good he will be at relaying that information to us is the question. I’m not thrilled at all with the prospect of having to listen to Tom Brady talk to me every Sunday for 10 years but he’ll probably be less annoying than Cris Collinsworth, and since he’s on Fox, I won’t have to watch the game he’s calling since others will usually be on. That’s arguably the worst part about Collinsworth, you can’t avoid him.
Anyway I got family stuff for the next week so no comics till next Friday at the earliest. Go outside and enjoy some spring allergies.
We will never be free of Brady now. We always knew he would never die but we at least thought he would eventually be off our screens someday.
I never took Brady for a color-commentary type so I’m kind of interested to see how this plays out. He seems better suited as a talk-show analyst more than anything.
Personally, I’d have preferred if he and Peyton started up a football talk show instead. The amount of football knowledge between those two would probably turn every viewer into an expert on QB play, plus, if Brady’s appearance on the Manningcast was anything to go by, the two have some great chemistry. Ah well.
The saddest part about all of this is who the hell watches, or doesn’t watch, a game specifically because of the announcers? A great announcing crew may let you stick around a few minutes longer for some Week 16 suckfest between two teams competing for draft position, but there’s literally no one who will be saying “Well, I wasn’t going to watch this week, I was planning on pulling weeds, but dammit, I can’t miss Tom Brady’s riveting commentary!” IOW, it’s a huge waste of money on Fox’s part, especially because for major games, people will be watching *anyway*.
The NFL universe is at it’s savviest when it realizes it’s a license to print money that has a massive captured audience during the season and only requires some modest hype efforts in the off-season to make it a year-round affair (like last week’s schedule releases).
The NFL universe is at it’s least savviest when this license to print money leaves them willing and able to flush money down the toilet like this.
The only situation where the announcing crew would really be a business concern is the 1 pm sunday games for markets where neither the Fox or CBS games have a tie in, maybe? Even any loss for ESPN due to the Manningcast wouldn’t be a business concern as it’s within the same entity. Even in cases where someone leaves the TV on mute and listens on the radio (as I’ve done in the past at times with Giants games with the Buck/Aikman tandem) are no concern as the ratings capture what’s on.
Well, consider the value of a few extra minutes in terms of commercials. A few extra minutes goes a long way
The more time goes on, the more it seems like Brady is just craving media attention, so I’m not surprised this deal was announced now, or thath he would do it. He constantly SAYS he doesn’t want attention, then continues to do things that bring him attention. Like the fake-retirement-so-I-can-play-in-Miami scheme he tried to pull off, constantly throwing out his “Never say never” comments about playing again, knowing it would keep his name in the headlights.
I don’t mean it explicitly as an insult, plenty of people like to be talked about, and that’s fine. It just wasn’t apparent how much he craved the spotlight until he left New England.
Yeah, it’s been kind of wild to see just how much he’s been trying to grab attention the past few years. Makes you wonder what things would be like if he hadn’t had Bill reining him in when he was young.
Maybe it’s because he wasn’t allowed any media attention for close to two whole decades that now he’s trying to get all that he can
I feel like he wants a big brand. Now that he’s nearing retirement he’s working hard, and has been for a few years, to make it happen. He see what Eli & Peyton have, what Strahan has, with all their TV shows, nationwide sponsorships, guest spots, celebrity golf tournaments and he wants that for his retirement. Can’t blame the guy. Especially the Mannings, it seems like they are getting paid millions of dollars to hang out with each other and their friends
Definitely agreed. Between the Tompa Bay & TB12 trademarks, and then charging $75(!!!!!) for a mother f-ing “BRADY” brand TANK TOP, yea, he definitely seems “all in” on the commercialism train. I don’t blame him, either, I just think it’s jarring how suddenly he’s pivoted into it.
The Mannings have a long history of doing commercials and engaging with the media, so we’re accustomed to that side of them. Brady always pushed the “I’m a boring no nonsense robot who only wants to win. I don’t care about anything else, except Uggs.”
So it’s just kind of odd to suddenly see him come off so… I don’t want to say ‘desperate,’ but the moves he’s been making almost feel that way. He’s getting older, the young riff raff are getting all the press, and this seems like the only way he can keep his name in lights. I’ll concede, the original retirement leak was on Adam ShitferBrains (I wouldn’t be surprised if Brady himself leaked it to him), but the “Will I? Won’t I? Maybe? Oh, I’m back!” and the timing of those was all on Brady, along with this.
>Brady always pushed the “I’m a boring no nonsense robot who only wants to win. I don’t care about anything else, except Uggs.”
The thing is that Brady never really did this. As far as I can tell Brady has been doing commercials as far back as like 2005 and likely had a few more appearances before then that I just don’t remember. Plus he’s been pushing the TB12 Method for nearly a decade now, which was his primary brand before he started the whole “BRADY” clothing line. All well before he ever left New England. Not to say that he hasn’t leaned more into being a “media guy” since leaving, but this isn’t something new with him.
I think a lot of people saw him as a robotic, I only care about winning type of guy because that’s the image that everyone projects onto any player that enters the Belichick bubble—besides Gronk who did everything on and off the field to reject it. Brady’s always had a bit of a personality, but now that he’s no longer paired with Belichick and his image, more people are becoming privy to it. It’s been kind of funny seeing more people warm up to Tom Brady now that he’s no longer a Patriot when he’s basically the same guy.
I don’t disagree with most of what you’re saying, but I think I might have been too vague making my point, so let me give you a 6-paragraph clarification. *breaks out quill and ink*
It’s not that he NEVER engaged in commercials or with the media, it’s that there was always a… PRACTICAL nature to anything he put his name on, and you never heard SQUAT from him or about him outside the football field. Any drama he was involved with was stuff he clearly wanted kept private, like his friendship with Drumpf, his breakup with Bridget, or his saggy balls. I disagree with you strongly on one point, though… he 100% absolutely contributed to the portrayal of himself as an emotionless robot. Just look at his postgame pressers. BB trained him well. Always very flat, always very even. The crying meme is the only emotion I think he ever showed to the public in the early years.
What he’s been doing since heading to Tampa Bay – to me – is DRASTICALLY different. ‘Tompa Bay’ was just a marketing gimmick centered on him, with no practical purpose other than building his brand. The retirement wavering was the same, public drunkenness and throwing the trophy, you could say maybe Gronk was responsible for those, but no matter how you slice it, there’s a clear line from being a consummate buttoned-up professional who kept it close to the vest, with very practical side interests to a carefree dude letting it all hang out that very much seems to be craving the attention. (Which, again, is fine. I’m really not trying to judge him for it.)
Obviously, this is all subjective conjecture, but as someone who lives in New England and has been dunked into the Tom Brady fan experience by the people around me, I strongly feel the persona he uses when engaging with the public and the media has changed drastically since he left NE.
Looking forward to Brady’s “Cut that meat!!!” moment.
I get most of my football from internet radio now. If there’s a game on Amazon Prime or Channel 5 he’s doing, I’ll switch to that.
Hell, I’ve had two decades with him in my division. That’s way more than enough without ten years of him behind the mic.
“No bitches?!” – Tom in the middle panel
Tom Brady uses the dragon balls to wish for immortality.