WFAN in New York hosts Gregg Giannotti and Boomer Esiason discussed FOX replacing Greg Olsen in the number one booth with Tom Brady this morning. The Boomer & Gio hosts had very different takes when it comes to what the public reaction will be to Brady when his analyst career begins at the start of next season.
Esiason, noting how Brady is known to be a “maniac when it comes to preparation,” said he believes Brady and FOX will use the upcoming Super Bowl as a practice session. “I would imagine that he and Kevin Burkhardt are going to be somewhere practicing this Super Bowl,” he said, and added it could help with learning the goings on of a broadcast booth including vernacular and technology.
Esiaison said, “He’s got big shoes to fill, the popularity of who he is replacing.”
That is when Gregg Giannotti offered a different opinion than most. “My take on that is nobody really likes Greg Olsen, they just don’t like that Tom Brady is coming in and pumping him out,” he said. Giannotti said Olsen is “getting pumped up to a level like he is the greatest color analyst of all-time. Because Tom Brady, who is generally disliked by most of the football viewing public, because of the Patriots and the cheating scandals and all of that, people were sick of him…But now, Greg Olsen gets knocked out because big bad Tom Brady is coming in.”
Esiason said he thinks Brady’s first game will be one of the most viewed opening week games of all-time. He said it may take fans “getting used to Tom Brady’s voice, because it’s a new voice. You have heard it, but you are going to hear it in a different vein.”
Giannotti pointed out how it has been difficult for some players to make the transition to broadcasting and Esiason brought up Greg Olsen. Gio replied, “And now look, he is enemy number one of the NFL viewer right now, he gets crushed. Jason Witten – that was a disaaster, Booger McFarland was a disaster.
“To go in to the booth now and have everybody criticize everything you’re saying. They will hate you. Everyone will hate him. He would have to be John Madden reincarnated, and he’s not going to be that, why put yourself through that, I don’t understand.”
