The bar for NFL team owners speaking publicly is floating around the floor. As long as you don’t say anything mind-bogglingly stupid, ignorant, or offensive, everyone will still call you “Mr.” to call. and jockey for your affection.
So by the standards of his new peers, newly minted Las Vegas Raiders owner Tom Brady did fine in his first announcing appearance since getting the nod to buy into the league’s upper echelon. But by the standards of the announcing business and the expectations of Fox viewers, well… Brady still has a lot of work to do to convincingly combine these two roles.
Brady officially became a minority owner of the Raiders earlier this week, a role that has significant implications for his Sunday job announcing big games for Fox. Among the restrictions on Brady as an owner: he can’t criticize the referees, he can’t criticize other organizations, and he can’t be present at pregame production meetings with other organizations.
All these limitations make perfect sense for, say, Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft. But for someone who will be paid $375 million over the next decade to broadcast some of the season’s biggest games (including the Super Bowl), these restrictions seem to keep Brady from being as honest as he should be. and as fans might expect, he will be.
This kind of crossover between ownership and broadcasting is not unprecedented in sports; In NASCAR, for example, team owners have often served as race broadcasters without any on-air acknowledgment of their relationship. But NASCAR is a more fun sport than the NFL… and, like every other sport, has a much smaller broadcast reach than the NFL.
A broadcaster does not have to burn everything down; that kind of Skip Bayless/Stephen A. Smith flame-throwing means less analysis and more performance, and fans can see right through it. But a broadcaster should have the freedom to speak both honestly and authoritatively on tough topics – an underperforming player, a questionable coaching decision, a missed or misapplied penalty.
The alternative is exactly what we got from Brady on Fox’s Chiefs-49ers broadcast on Sunday afternoon: a spirited, upbeat broadcast so full of praise and rah-rah that the NFL’s own screenwriters couldn’t have made it any better.
Granted, if you’re looking for two teams to criticize, you wouldn’t exactly start with two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City and perennial playoff contender San Francisco. These two teams are both a far cry from their Super Bowl-level strength in February, but they are still two of the better-managed organizations in football.
And oh, did Brady lavish the praise. He praised Patrick Mahomes’ “sneaky creativity.” He gushed love for Nick Bosa’s “incredible performance in the Super Bowl.” He raved about the “really good creative plan from Coach (Andy) Reid, one of the most unique play-callers in the league… just a great coach.” You give the players their flowers and then you load an entire Amsterdam field full of tulips.
Late in the first quarter, Kansas City’s Nick Bolton was flagged for a highly suspicious pass interference call; Brock Purdy’s pass appeared to sail well over George Kittle’s head. But other than a typical tight call line, Brady didn’t criticize the penalty, not even noting that as a quarterback he liked those who went his way even when he knew they were wrong. Instead, he simply passed it off to Mike Pereira, Fox’s in-house referee analyst, with a quick “I don’t know, Mike, what do you think?”
Brady did have a few moments, like when he called Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo “the bane of my existence,” referencing their past on the other end of the line. But those kinds of statements came across as tongue-in-cheek off-season banter-level jokes, rather than honest criticism.
Hurry, we could find out very soon how honest Brady can be. His miserable old team, the New England Patriots, plays the New York Jets next weekend. Analyzing that mess would push the limits of Brady’s limitations. Unfortunately, it will air on CBS, but that would be something to hear, wouldn’t it?
The frustrating history of this new dynamic is that Brady is legitimately improving as an analyst every week. His voice doesn’t have the authoritative bass of John Madden, the distinctive regional accent of Cris Collinsworth or the raspy enthusiasm of Tony Romo. But he makes up for it by bringing more audible enthusiasm each week, as well as a humanity we weren’t quite sure existed when he was a quarterback. When Brandon Aiyuk went down with a gruesome leg injury late in the first half, Brady audibly gasped in sympathy. It’s a small thing, but it helps connect announcer and viewer.
Brady should be happy with this new arrangement, which will keep him in the public eye and give him access to a higher level of the NFL hierarchy. And the league itself must be satisfied; its most famous alum is now a de facto PR machine.
But Fox can’t be happy that its star channel is operating without a full toolbox at its disposal. And fans will miss the truly honest commentary from one of the most connected players in NFL history. Just like he did when he was a player, Brady only shows us what he wants us to see.
