As his second year in the broadcast booth approaches, legendary NFL quarterback and current Fox Sports talent Tom Brady gave himself a brutally honest review for his journey thus far calling the NFL.
Brady was handed a 10-year, $375million contract to be the No 1 color commentator for Fox’s NFL coverage, with that span beginning last fall.
His first season ended with calling the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in front of a television audience of nearly 130million. Not bad for someone who was five months on the gig.
Now, Brady has taken a look back at his journey as a commentator thus far.
‘There was a lot of growing pains through the year for me, just in terms of prep and, obviously, going on-air, and there’s things you messed up and there’s things that you make mistakes,’ Brady said on The Joel Klatt Show.
‘And probably a lot like being an NFL quarterback. You think, “I’m prepared and I got and I practiced.” You go into a real game in your rookie year, and you’re like, “Oh my God, that’s a lot faster. What am I doing?” It gets a little better in Week 2 and a little better in Week 3.’
Tom Brady has given an honest review of his first year in the broadcast booth with Fox Sports
Brady cited a lot of ‘growing pains’ throughout the year that ended with calling the Super Bowl
‘And sometimes you regress a little bit, and sometimes you do things you really like that impress you. And sometimes you’re like you forgot completely going into Week 9, “How did I do that?” or “What was I talking about?”‘
Brady was under a microscope due to his level of celebrity, with every mistake being picked apart by detractors on the internet.
The former Patriot and Buccaneer attempted to convey the knowledge gained from a 23-year NFL quarterback without taking over a broadcast.
‘The tricky part for broadcasting is everybody likes something a little bit different,’ Brady added. ‘I think when you’re broadcasting a game, the listener likes something different from everybody. They like your voice. They like your inflection. They like your technical parts, or they don’t.
‘They like or they don’t like. Some like a little teaching. Some like entertainment. Some like personal stories. Some you’re talking too much about yourself. Depending on who you ask, you get a lot of feedback. And I think that’s the confusing part.’
Time will tell how much Brady improves in his second season in the NFL, with now a full offseason to learn from how his rookie year in the booth transpired.
