Yesterday, Jim Nantz raised eyebrows after saying he wouldn’t touch on Tom Brady’s divorce during the Sunday’s broadcast between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Los Angeles Rams, because “Tom’s a friend”. 93.7 The Fan morning host Colin Dunlap wasn’t a fan of the comments.
“Man, when you’re rich and powerful, you have rich and powerful friends, and you can control the media,” Dunlap said before reading the comments Nantz gave to Jimmy Traina during the SI Media Podcast.
“Nantz says he won’t cross personal boundaries with Tom Brady. He’s not gonna discuss the divorce. I would agree with him on the surface except for this: Starting the Steelers, which started the Buccs demise, they’ve not lost three in a row. Brady hasn’t been good in those three games. He’s been just ok. He doesn’t throw interceptions, but he doesn’t throw touchdowns, either. One can drop in ‘Brady has been going through some personal things and you wonder if it is affecting his on-field play’. To just come right out beforehand and say ‘We don’t even touch that!’, that looks bad. I’m sorry. For as great as Nantz is, he’s running interference for a friend.”
“When he mentions Tom Brady is a friend, that’s when I lose him,” Chris Mack replied. “If you’re not gonna talk about a quarterback’s personal situation — think about it. If it were just some average, everyday, Joe Schmo quarterback who’s going through a divorce that nobody knows about because he’s not on TMZ every day, you wouldn’t find most announcers talking about it. But, naturally, when it becomes Tom Brady, it becomes a part of the discussion and the discourse around Tom Brady. I would be ok with Nantz avoiding it, if he hadn’t just admitted he’s doing it because he’s friends with Brady.”
“Or don’t say anything at all, and just do the game and not mention it,” said Dunlap.
