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In a recent episode of his In The Bonus podcast, FOX Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb and Executive Producer Jason Stewart talked about Tom Brady’s first season as an NFL analyst amongst other topics. Stewart gave his thoughts first and not only said he doesn’t think Brady has done a great job, but he also wonders about the rules the NFL has set forth as it relates to Brady the broadcaster and Brady the part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
“Fox pays Tom Brady, I think, 50 million bucks a year,” Stewart said although the reported figure is $37.5 million per season. “If you’ve been watching, and I watched the entire game on Sunday…there’s a lot of ‘Captain Obvious’ with his analyst work. There’s more Magic Johnson than there is Troy Aikman. There isn’t a whole lot of insight. Great players aren’t able to always be great at describing the game.
“And then you saw the story last week after he signed his ownership deal with the Raiders where he’s not going to get access to team meetings. He’s not going to get access that most analysts get. So, you’re already having a guy that’s kind of ‘Captain Obvious’, and then you’re going to handicap him. Now, I understand that there’s a lot of resources over at Fox that are going to produce him up, and there’s going to be no shortages of information and whatnot. But again, just his raw ability to react in real time isn’t very insightful to begin with. So, I just don’t know about Tom Brady.”
Gottlieb added, “Yeah, it’s been disappointing…He still hasn’t been able to be the off-camera Tom Brady on camera. You know, it’s still like performative art for him, and that just doesn’t work. It’s too robotic, it’s too stilted, it’s too planned. Tony Romo needs his prep, and he needs the Tony Romo’s let it rip.
“And if you could meet in the middle, you’d have a great broadcaster. And I honestly think people still will prefer Romo to him, and I know you don’t enjoy Romo’s broadcast, but by comparison, they’re a lot more enjoyable to what Tom Brady’s doing.”
“I’ll give you that,” Stewart replied. “The aesthetics with Romo are tough. He has an impossible voice that grates on you, and then, yeah, his antics are annoying as well.”
