Analyst or broadcaster, you don’t enter this business without a deep connection to sports. Whether you’re a lifelong fan like Rich Eisen, a Super Bowl-winning head coach like Tony Dungy or a former number one overall pick like Alex Smith, if you have a job talking about the NFL on television, the path began with a love of the sport.
No matter the sport, if you love the game, you have tremendous respect for its greatest players. But as a fan, I want more than myth-making from the men and women paid to put the action in perspective. That is why I was so impressed with Smith on Sunday morning.
Sunday NFL Countdown was discussing comments Tom Brady made to Stephen A. Smith last week about the declining quality of the league.
“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL,” Brady said Tuesday on Smith’s podcast. “I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past. I think the coaching isn’t as good as it was. I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don’t think the schemes are as good as they were. The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. So I just think the product in my opinion is less than what it’s been.”
On ESPN Sunday morning, Alex Smith eviscerated the undisputed GOAT. First, he pointed out that the league in 2023 is not appreciably different from 2020, when Brady won his final Super Bowl, one that he has never said is tainted or illegitimate. Then Smith really went for it. In front of Brady’s former teammates Randy Moss and Teddy Bruschi and Rex Ryan, who coached not one, but two of Brady’s rivals in the AFC East, Smith threw decorum to the wind, very aware that his colleagues were about to be caught in the crossfire.
“He played in the most uncompetitive division in NFL history,” he said after he assured the people he was offending that he meant no offense. “I mean, you come out of training camp in the biggest cupcake division, you got a ticket to the playoffs right away. Like, talk about mediocre.”
I loved it, and not because I am a Brady hater. I’m not. In fact, I grew up a fan of that same Buccaneers franchise that Brady led to a title in 2020.
Smith’s commentary was truly fearless. So many commentators claim to be unfiltered truth-tellers. Smith is a smart guy. He knew the pushback that he was inviting. It may come from his colleagues on air. It may get louder and more animated off-air during a commercial break. Social media trolls would certainly be ready to pounce with stat and accomplishment comparisons in an effort to discredit the former Washington, Kansas City and San Francisco quarterback. He didn’t let it change what he wanted to say.
Celebrating greatness is easy to do, and the accomplishments of people like Tom Brady and Michael Jordan transcend their respective sports. But that doesn’t mean they are above reproach, especially on pregame shows.
There may be some validity to what Brady told Stephen A, but what good does it do ESPN to promote it as gospel? Football has changed. That isn’t news to anyone who follows the sport and those that don’t like it are never shy about sharing their opinion. Echoing Brady’s sentiment would have made the pregame show inconsequential noise.
Signing off on Brady’s comments as truth also tells the audience that there is no need to watch the games that Alex Smith and the rest of the panel are talking about. Why would you? They aren’t going to be any good. And if there is no need to watch NFL football games played in the modern day, why bother watching Sunday NFL Countdown?
I have written about this a lot. My ultimate broadcaster pet peeve is someone arguing that nothing that will happen in the future will ever be as good as what happened in the past. It’s a loser’s mentality and it sends the audience the message that they are fools for caring about today’s action.
Did Tom Brady really play in one of the least competitive divisions ever in his glory days in New England? I don’t know, and frankly, it’s irrelevant to Smith’s grander point.
“I completely disagree with this,” he said on Sunday NFL Countdown. “I know he’s talking about the rule over the middle over the field to the receiver. But in my opinion, the game has gotten better,” he concluded citing parity and defensive talent.
Tom Brady is the most accomplished man to ever play quarterback in the NFL. He is one of the great winners in all of American sports. His opinions have weight. That is why FOX is writing him a check bigger than all of the ones he got from his playing days to try his hand at broadcasting.
The man knows football. That doesn’t mean that all of his opinions have merit. Any fellow quarterback-turned-analyst has just as much credibility. Every legend deserves respect and recognition for what they did on the field, but they are playing a different game when they get into the opinion business.
It’s a game Tom Brady and FOX are betting he will learn and be good at. But when he starts the gig next season, Brady will have a thing or two to learn from Alex Smith, something that was unimaginable in his playing days.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
