While the Philadelphia Eagles hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy and subjugated the quest for a third consecutive Super Bowl championship by the Kansas City Chiefs, there was another storyline firmly rooted within the context of the game. Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was making his first appearance in the broadcast booth for the championship game under a 10-year deal with FOX Sports reportedly worth a total of $375 million.
As has been the case throughout the entire season, Brady received mixed reviews from viewers and users on social media. David Haugh, morning show co-host on 670 The Score in Chicago, emphasized that the game was a disappointment and that he was not thrilled by the broadcast.
Show co-host Mike Mulligan concurred with this sentiment, explaining that Brady lived up to the game and that he offered no insight, causing viewers to ostensibly not learn anything from him. Haugh replied by stating that what the consumers gathered was that Brady is slightly overwhelmed and unnatural in this setting. There was scrutiny directed towards the first-year broadcast analyst throughout the night on social media platforms, and 670 The Score broke down just what some of the putative issues were.
“He gave you, like, ‘Hey Tom, what are you seeing?’ ‘I think that’s Patrick Mahomes and he’s sitting on the sideline,’” Mulligan recalled on Monday’s edition of Mully & Haugh. “What are you doing? No offense that he won. You know, I love Kevin Burkhardt, but I got to tell you, when you come back from the half and you short the leading team by a field goal, that’s pretty awful if you don’t know the score of the game. No, it’s not great – not a great broadcast.”
“Like Patrick Mahomes, this was Tom Brady’s worst Super Bowl,” Haugh added.
Mulligan explained that there was no insight during the broadcast, leading Haugh to convey that it is what he was looking for. Although he surmised potential parallels to instances throughout his playing career, Haugh did not identify Brady’s performance as what viewers were searching for in the Super Bowl. Even though he found himself wanting to like what he was offering in the booth, he found himself wanting something different. Mulligan opined that Brady should work in the front office for the Las Vegas Raiders, the team in which he holds a minority ownership stake.
“I think that’s a good direction, or you know what: the studio,” Haugh said. “Go in there, replace Gronk. Gronk was a little bit awkward and stiff. They got too many people at the booth.”
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