As FOX Sports continues to gear towards its broadcast of Super Bowl LX from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, La., viewers are becoming more acclimated with its revamped lead NFL broadcast team. Play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and sideline reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi welcomed new analyst and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady to the booth this season, commencing a 10-year contract reportedly worth $375 million. Ahead of calling a pivotal NFC matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams from SoFi Stadium, Brady joined the network’s NFL pregame shows live from their nearby studios.
While Brady was appearing on FOX NFL Sunday, he reminisced on his time with the New England Patriots and threw a pass to former teammate and studio analyst Rob Gronkowski. As his FOX Sports colleague and former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan played defense, Gronkowski successfully caught the spiral from Brady, leading to laughter from the cast. Earlier in the show, host Curt Menefee asked Brady how he has been doing in his new role.
“It’s been so fun,” Brady said. “The best part is I have the best teammates in the world. Kevin Burkhardt, Erin [Andrews], Tom Rinaldi, my boy [Richie Zyontz], [Rich Russo], so just coming into this has been so much fun. [I have] really enjoyed every part of it.”
Gronkowski replied to Brady’s discourse by saying that he has great teammates, akin to when he was playing professional football. In addition, he stated that no one told them there was homework associated with the job and was curious about the preparation he had been embarking on for a game.
“A lot of listening, a lot of reading, a lot of studying,” Brady explained. “I think for all of us, we just want to deliver for people, so get as much information as you can, and there’s a lot of places to get it from, so just enjoying that part of really staying intact and attuned with something that I love.”
FOX NFL studio analyst and four-time Super Bowl champion Terry Bradshaw replied to Brady by divulging that he does not believe in studying. Moreover, he mentioned how Brady has an avidity for fishing, resulting in him disclosing that he was recently in the Bahamas when the crew did not have a game to call last weekend. Brady was on the call for the Thanksgiving Day game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants that averaged 38.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research and Adobe Analytics, representing the most-watched NFL game of the season.
Since Brady has a minority ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, he is operating under restrictions that limit his access to team facilities and ability to criticize the officials among other stipulations. These impediments were put in place as Brady’s ownership approval was pending and have remained as such since formally permitted to become a limited partner within the Raiders organization. Later in the interview, Howie Long followed up by asking Brady to discuss the most unexpected thing he has encountered in the booth. Within his answer, he credited Burkhardt for guiding him in the right direction during the broadcast while also discussing the location from which he is viewing the action.
“I think the biggest challenge is I had so many years of playing quarterback where you’re under center and then you’re on the sideline watching your defense and hearing play calls,” Brady said. “I didn’t watch any games from the 50-yard line halfway up the stadium, so just getting your eyes in the right place and things are happening so fast down there, and there’s a lot of things between offense [and] defense.”
Bradshaw subsequently queried if there was any difficulty in viewing all of the different aspects of a given play, such as motions, the line and blitzes. Brady concurred with this assertion and proceeded to emphasize the importance of preparation and repetition. Before he had stepped foot in the broadcast booth, he had called several mock games both in the studio and on site with Burkhardt, building invaluable rapport and an understanding of how to most effectively work with his new colleagues.
“[Y]ou don’t realize that you have TV screens at home that are huge and people can see high-def, and it’s not always like that, even for the monitors we have,” Brady said, “so again, it takes a little time and reps.”
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