Ryan Fitzpatrick is in his first season as an NFL analyst on Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video. With Fitzpatrick only being a year removed from the NFL, there was one thing he thought he would struggle with when becoming an analyst.
Fitzpatrick was a guest on The Ryen Russillo Podcast last week and said he thought he would have an issue with being critical of players and/or teams, but it hasn’t ended up being an issue.
“The thing that I thought I would struggle with more is being critical. Being critical of friends. Before our Denver game, Nathaniel Hackett is a dear friend of mine. He recruited Sherman to Stanford, there’s some ties there where we know him very well, Tony knows his dad very well. As long as you are fair as long as what you are saying isn’t coming from a place of attacking somebody because you don’t like them personally, but you are fair about evaluating what has happened throughout the season. That part hasn’t been as challenging to me.
“I think I’ve very easily been able to make sure to watch film on a guy or a team and tell what I think and not necessarily worry about the feelings that much.”
With Fitzpatrick not too far removed from his playing days, he brought up an example from when he was with the Dolphins in 2020 and stories were coming up about when he was benched for Tua Tagovailoa that were not true.
“At one point, being on the inside when Flores decided to bench me and put Tua in, all of the stories that came about from that, I was just sitting there like ‘Wait a minute, I’m involved in this and that is not what happened’. But, because one person says it, then somebody else picks it up, then somebody picks it up, it’s sort of spins into the perceived truth of what’s going on. That part as a player is really frustrated.
“As an analyst, I don’t want to call let’s say Tua and say ‘Hey, what really happened?’ You never want to betray that trust or that confidence to figure out what’s going on on the inside. You give an informed take, but it is weird being on the outside looking in now.”
On the Amazon Prime Video set, Pitzpatrick is one of three players on the set who just recently retired. He said that Charissa Thompson and Tony Gonzalez have been a major help with their experience in television.
“With our crew, there’s three of us that are right off the field. It’s me, it’s Richard Sherman, and it’s Andrew Whitworth. Charissa Thompson has been a true pro and a vet, just kind of allowing us to figure It out as we go. We’ve got Tony Gonzalez, who has worked for a couple different networks and is kind of the uncle at the Thanksgiving table that tells jokes…It’s been a lot of fun.”
