In September of 2021, a new football podcast from SiriusXM hit the market. It featured longtime sportscaster Jim Gray with two future NFL Hall of Famers, Tom Brady and Larry Fitzgerald. The first two seasons of the show, Fitzgerald and Brady would rotate being on with Gray. Late in that second season, they started adding guests from both inside and outside the sports world. Season three was a lot more guests and a lot less Larry Fitzgerald and then this season, with Brady focusing most of his time on his FOX Sports game broadcasts, he is now an occasional guest. I eavesdropped in on this year’s version of the show, which is now, Let’s Go! with Bill Belichick, Maxx Crosby, Peter King & Jim Gray.
As luck would have it, the week I chose to listen was a week Brady was on. To accommodate, the show ended up posting two episodes, one where Jim Gray and Peter King broke down week 2 of the season and one where Gray was joined by Brady and Belichick.
The Brady-Belichick episode should just be sent straight to the Hall of Fame of informative NFL conversation, wherever that’s located. And while there were a lot of questions about how well Belichick would do on the media side, based on his uncharismatic (to say the least) press conferences, the truth is, by any measurement, Belichick has exceeded expectations. Whether he is in a position to be very technical about football, or one where he helps simplify the game, he is outstanding.
From what Brady learned from Belichick he uses today in his broadcasting, to what Belichick says made Brady great, to the way Belichick conducted meetings and practices and what about it was important or different from other teams or other coaches. It was just great to listen in, which Gray mostly did, recognizing the gold he had and hear these two talk like they were on a phone call breaking down things they each did that made them great.
Brady was funny when Gray said the two were now in the media.
“I like to think of myself more as like a teacher slash former player who actually gets a chance to go on now and try to inform and entertain a little bit out there,” Brady said not yet ready to say he is part of the media. “And I’m learning the ropes too, so I’m basically a rookie.”
Brady said about Belichick’s work as an analyst, “I don’t think you can have a better person be involved for the public to actually listen to how games are being called. He’s got so much insight into the history of the game, and I’ve learned a lot sitting in those team meeting rooms for 20 years.”
Belichick responded, “I’ve definitely enjoyed talking about football, and as you know, Tom, I’ve learned an awful lot from you seeing the game through a quarterback’s eyes.”
He then humorously added, “But what’s tough for me is this social media, man. I feel like I’m in the middle of the ocean without a life preserver, and I’m never going to make it to shore.”
Later, Gray asked Belichick to analyze how Brady has done so far as an NFL analyst. While others have been more negative, Belichick also watches games quite differently from the average fan. He talked about the types of things Brady has pointed out.
“He kept saying something that we’ve always talked about, Cleveland [in the Dallas game] can’t keep going backwards. And in that game, they were in a lot of long-yarded situations on second and third down for penalties and negative plays and all that. That’s one thing Tom and I always talk about in every game is just keep moving the ball forward, stay out of negative plays, don’t turn the ball over. But when you go in the wrong direction, really Cleveland did that the whole game. And, you know, points like that, I thought were really great observations.”
Brady returned the favor and explained something Belichick did as a coach that made him special. He talked about making the game relatively simple for people to understand and compared that to other coaches. “So many coaches that I’ve been around can make things very difficult for players to understand…It’s like when you cover everything, you cover nothing,” Brady said. “And I think that Coach Belichick, that was the opposite of the way that he coached. I think there was a simplicity.”
Brady explained how what he learned from his old coach helps him today with broadcasting. “So much of my commentary as I go on is going to be based on trying to make the game simple for the viewer to understand,” Brady said. “
Brady then asked Belichick, “Coach, how have you enjoyed sitting back and having a chance to see football from a different perspective?”
“In the past, I’ve been focused on two teams, the team I was on and the team we were playing,” he responded. “Now every week I get a chance to look at all 32, and that’s really been interesting to see how different teams prepare, how they construct a game plan, how they handle different situations, injuries, adjustments, and so forth. So, it’s really not just on the field but also off the field, looking at teams on the organization side. It’s been really interesting to see how everybody else does it. You know, I’ve got some good ideas…I’ve learned a lot like I always do just by watching it. You can figure out some things and see what teams are doing really well and maybe some mistakes they’re making that, you know, you recognize and say, hey, maybe that’s not the best idea.”
Brady then followed up with a great question, which was, “Are there any teams that you look at and you think, okay, they got it going?”
Take what you wish from his answer, but I think we all know the team he mentions has a coach who is very much on the hot seat.
“Well, I think there’s a lot of teams that are managed really well,” he said. “Certainly, Dallas has accumulated a lot of really good players, and they’ve been able to balance that with some guys like [kicker Brandon] Aubrey and [wide receiver/return specialist KaVontae] Turpin and guys like that that really are great players but didn’t cost too much in terms of draft capital or contracts…It’s definitely been interesting to watch these teams operate.”
Gray then asked Belichick if he missed coaching.
“I enjoy every day,” he answered. “Every day is a great opportunity, so I just try to take advantage of the opportunities that I have. [I’ve been] on the field out in Washington, seen a lot of film, talked to a lot of people and just got involved in different aspects of the game. I saw a great high school game in August, so doing some things that I haven’t done before, it’s all been good.”
With Maxx Crosby, 27, still in the middle of his playing career for the Las Vegas Raiders, his demeanor on the show is going to somewhat be dependent on what happens that week for his team. In week 1, the team lost 22-10 to the Chargers whereas in week 2, they won 26-23 over Baltimore. He was not on this week, but listening back to his appearance after the loss, I am certain he would have been more excited to be breaking down the way the team played.
In the second episode of week three, which looked back on week two of the season, Gray was joined by Peter King. King is one of the all-time best when it comes to talking NFL and offering well informed opinions. In this week’s episode, whether it was talking about the thrilling game between the Chiefs and Bengals, quarterbacks Kyler Murray, Justin Fields, Bryce Young or Tua Tagovailoa, the ineptness of the Carolina Panthers organization or any of the other topics they covered in about a half an hour, it was plain and simply very smart football talk.
Since we don’t get to read 10,000 words from Peter King online each week anymore, hearing him give his takes on the week that was in the league and the major storylines is really a gift.
Let’s Go! has been a great listen since it first launched, and the new iteration of the show is just so good. I could write another thousand words going on about what you missed just in the couple episodes I listened to. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen. New shows drop each Monday at 6 p.m. ET on Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio with a replay on SiriusXM NFL Radio at 6:30 p.m. ET and it is available on your major podcasting platforms.
It’s like getting a PhD in the NFL.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
