Tom Brady is the GOAT.
There’s no two ways about it. A 7-time Super Bowl champ, 5-time Super Bowl MVP, 3-time NFL MVP… the man’s professional football resume is as impressive as anyone who’s ever strapped on a helmet.
And personally, I love Tom Brady’s insight into the game of football, and sometimes, even the game of life. He’s recently been a voice for how much NFL coaches are failing to develop young quarterbacks, how the college system has failed to develop NFL-ready quarterbacks… when 12 is talking football, I’m generally willing to listen.
And you’d think that would’ve translated to the broadcast booth, which FOX dished out a big, fat check to get him into. Brady signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox, pushing out former Bears and Panthers TE Greg Olsen as FOX’s top color commentator. Of course, Greg had nothing but great things to say about Tom coming into the booth, and he never saw it as a demotion, but still, they brought in Tom to be the top dog, and everybody knows it.
And so far, football fans have been HATING it.
Yesterday, Tom and Kevin Burkhardt were on the call for the Ravens Steelers (Raven won big), and let’s just say fans were once again, unimpressed with the Hall of Fame-caliber QB’s performance. He mixed up Najee Harris (current steelers running back) with Najeh Davenport, who hasn’t played since 2008. He referred to Ravens QB Lamar Jackson as “hauling in” a touchdown… just sloppy work from someone who made a career by always executing the smallest of details.
Although, you could tell Lamar was pretty psyched to chat with the GOAT after the game.
WHOLESOME: Lamar Jackson and Tom Brady greatly respect each other and their greatness.
Brady: “It has been awesome watching you play this year; I thought I’d seen it all.”
Lamar: “Appreciate you, GOAT.”
Love to see this 🫡🫡🫡
pic.twitter.com/6u4Wc4o1yc— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) December 22, 2024
And sure, everyone (including Tom) thought it might take some time to get comfortable in the booth… I’d imagine it’s definitely not an easy thing to be good at, but for Tom the progress has been painfully slow. And to make matter worse, a lot of fans really like Greg Olsen in the booth, who was relegated to second string when Tom came in.
And this afternoon, as Greg was calling the Commanders Eagles game, which the Commanders won by the way, fans were reminded of just how bad the Brady for Olsen trade has been. And they took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to let the suits at the network know.
Check out some of the comments:
I know it’s a dead horse but Greg Olsen is so much better at color commentary than Tom Brady is. Shame he got knocked out of the top spot.
— Tony Clifton (@MrFadedGlory10) December 22, 2024
Greg Olsen is exponentially better than Tom Brady in the booth.
— Luigi (@Luigi_Wop) December 22, 2024
Having to agonizingly sit through Tom Brady’s color commentary yesterday during the Steelers game and then getting to hear Greg Olsen today with this Eagles game is such a huge breath of fresh air.
— Casey Erlewein (@CaseyErlewein) December 22, 2024
Greg Olsen is sooooo much better than Tom Brady!
— Will Coakley (@willcoakley) December 22, 2024
No secret but my goodness how much better Greg Olsen is than Tom Brady.
Give the man his job back— Elliott Price (@ElliottFPrice) December 22, 2024
I know Tom Brady is the GOAT and attracts eyeballs, but it can't be said how awful for TV viewers it's been that Fox relegated Greg Olsen to the 2nd team.
— Tyler Juranovich (@tylerjuranovich) December 22, 2024
Greg Olsen is the best color guy if you ask me. Yes, his accent is slightly irritating, but he’s 100 times better than Tom Brady 🙉.
He’s informative, objective and doesn’t do fake, OH MY GOD, shrieks.— Jules 🅱️🆓,🖕🏛 (@Noles_JagsJules) December 22, 2024
Greg Olsen >>>>>Tom Brady as a color commentator.
— Pete (@SljTake) December 22, 2024
Fox Sports replacing Greg Olsen with Tom Brady as the #1 announcer is the biggest mistake in sports media history.
— Joshua Manning (@JoshDougManning) December 22, 2024
Greg Olsen has been awesome as usual breaking down time and clock situations and strategy on this Washington-Philadelphia game. Listening to Brady last night, night and day. When are we going to stop trying to “make fetch happen.” @NFLonFOX make the change. @AndrewMarchand
— OfficiatingObserver17 (@RefObserver17) December 22, 2024
Time to go to work in the offseason, Tom. Get it figured out, eh?
Knowing Tom, he’ll build a makeshift broadcast booth in his house, maybe spend some of those millions on a rental location and just be in there every day running through film. Watching old games, studying through the rosters to familiarize himself with people that are actually in the game, rather than players who retired 20 years ago, maybe calling up some buddies in the league to practice his postgame interview skills… whatever it takes to be the best.
Or, maybe he’ll just quit. Don’t get me wrong, I love football as much as the next guy, but retiring from the game and heading into the broadcast booth sounds pretty awful to me. Especially when you’re not good at it. Coaching sounds better, running a quarterback skills camp for college or high school players sounds better. Do another podcast with Gronk… sky’s the limit.
