I’m a firm and unwavering believer that the sticking quality of an at-home sports experience is directly correlated with the performance and pedigree of its broadcasting team. How could it not? The men and women behind the mic are responsible for articulating some of the greatest moments in sports history to audiences of millions. Think of the collective, cultural memories these voices narrate.
So, sure, I’ve got a vested interest in how Tom Brady, greatest NFL quarterback of all time, will fare as a 2024 broadcast analyst for NFL on Fox. He’s replacing Greg Olsen, who called games for two years alongside veteran play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt. Brady will work alongside Burkhardt (Burkhardt & Brady has some great alliteration, right?), and longtime sideline reporter Erin Andrews.
The introduction of a new broadcast analyst is as fun as it is high-risk for on-air dynamics and surefire entertainment. But Tom Brady’s got a great voice (more on that below), and has already shown some of his chops as an analyst in several viral clips this offseason (also more on that later).
He won’t flop in his Week 1 debut, and here’s why:
Out with Olsen
First, let’s acknowledge the dearly departed, shall we?
Greg Olsen, unfortunately, got Drew-Bledsoed without even getting injured. And, yeah, I feel a little bad. Though, in fairness, this arrangement whereby Fox had planned to replace Olsen with Brady at the start of the 2024 NFL season has been floating around the rumorsphere since before Brady’s playing days ended. Now that the plan’s been fully actualized, Olsen will be working with Fox’s secondary team, alongside Joe Davis and Pam Oliver.
It’s a bit of a shame, only because Olsen had such a rhythmic rapport with Burkhardt. There was a certain voltage to his reedy-gruff voice whenever he raised it over the roar of stadium crowds. Heck, the trio of Olsen, Burkhardt and Erin Andrews became such a staple that they even had their own series of NFL on Fox commercials, a la Stuart-Scott-and-John-Anderson-era SportsCenter.
We can attribute so much of Greg Olsen’s booth success to his dynamic with the on-air team, sure. But we also need to give his natural talent some credit, here, too. Olsen has a fantastic voice for this sort of gig, to which I alluded above. It’s no wonder Fox wasn’t ready to fully let him go.
Given how impressive and beloved Olsen was with the A-team, we’re well within our rights to expect Burkhardt and Brady to hit the ground running. And it’s without question that no one has higher expectations for Brady than himself.
And as for his voice?
A scouting profile of Tom Brady’s voice …
… composed by a categorically-unqualified voice analyst. However, and for whatever it’s worth, I am very much a voice enthusiast. Love a good one when I hear one (I see you, Glen Powell, with your new Dodge RAM gig.).
To wit, here’s my breakdown of Brady’s vocal chords:
Subtract a little tinny treble from Greg Olsen, add a little throaty bass, toss in the occasional got-away-from-himself-a-bit squeak, and I think you have a close approximation of Tom Brady’s delivery. By this I mean: vocally, Brady and Olsen both grade positively, and in similar ways. The sonic dynamic between Burkhardt and Brady should land as smoothly with viewers as it did when Olsen was in the mix. Speaking, of course, from a scouting perspective. Ahem.
Here’s a clip of him in the booth during a UFL game earlier this year. Take a listen:
Control
He has plus-grade control over his vocal muscles, clearly. You could hear it a lot when he was projecting his voice during the Roast on Netflix earlier this summer, too. When the environment got loud, Brady got organically loud, too. He rode the momentum. Rose to the level. You don’t say. A vestige of his football days, surely.
Physical Vocal Profile
His voice tucks itself in the back of his throat, right up near the base of his skull. Hangs there, too. As such, it’s heady. It’s got some rumble to it. And, at times, it masquerades as a bit hoarse — only a bit — in an undeniably magnetic way when, truly, Brady hasn’t run himself hoarse yet. Remarkable, given all the sold-out stadium crowds above which he needed his voice to rise.
It’s just his version of the gruff verve Olsen often inflected when making pointed analyses. This is, likely, what ignited and united his teammates when Brady called plays in the huddle his entire career — the strained and visceral passion in his voice.
All to say, I think his vocal profile is perfectly positioned for this particular broadcast team. It feels a little like Olsen was effectively just giving the Fox Sports vocal coach some good practice reps before Brady showed up for the real game. Everything about his debut should feel a bit seamless and elevate the prestige of the team immediately.
Some other things to watch for:
Prepared analyses
There’s no question that most of Brady’s success comes from his preparation. He’s said as much countless times. So we should expect plenty of features that the Fox crew has planned for Brady’s analysis. Picture here some slo-mo replays, yellow circles of players, some drawings of routes and defensive zones, explanations of well-executed pre-snap motions, etc.
Here’s a widely circulated clip from Fox’s The Herd, in which Brady details the importance of keeping offensive skill-players happy:
Impressive stuff, no? Gesticulations remind me of Kirk Herbstreit next to Chris Fowler. Natural. Anecdotal, too, in a way that hooks the viewer. Brady, it’s important to note, can tell a story.
We know he’ll be ultra-prepared. We’ve just got to hope he doesn’t fall into the trap of being so over-prepared that he feels stiff or rehearsed.
Because, let’s be clear, Tin Man Tom is something with which we’re all too familiar. Brady has an uncanny ability to morph into a corporate, robotic, hyper-diplomatic talk-a-tron when he needs to flip a switch. See: every single New England Patriots press conference with him ever.
But don’t forget just how much he can chop it up. He’s a player’s player. A trash-talker. Brady is, undeniably, kind of cool, in a tall glass of ice water kind of way. His presence in the booth should thus be refreshing.
On Sunday, Brady’s going to want to be the smoothest broadcast analyst who’s ever done it. Preparation has never suffocated his goals before. Quite the opposite — it’s always elevated his ability to meet them.
Brady’s ability to improvise
Absolutely crucial when evaluating a quarterback, right? Grading their ability to improvise when a play takes a life of its own.
Here, of course, we’re talking about Brady’s ability to react to Burkhardt’s off-platform comments that arise fluidly during the game. Will Brady stick and move? Or will there be some awkward pauses, some marble-mouthed off-script banter? Just how nimble is this guy going to be?
We know he’s pretty funny, right? He’s got a few fantastic deliveries in this clip from Peyton’s Places:
Clearly, he’s got a sense of humor, and can buy into a dorky joke. And, speaking of a reference in that video …
Will he pull a Romo?
The Romo: operationally defined here as possessing such a high football IQ that one finds oneself, in a national broadcast booth, giddily predicting plays based on down, distance, situation, field position, etc., and often doing so with such accuracy that viewers wonder whether or not said broadcaster might possess the gift of foresight.
It’s become a household anecdote about Tony Romo’s booth tendencies for CBS: The dude calls plays before they happen. Romo altogether reignited our parlor conversations about evaluating broadcast analysts with this quality in mind.
But Brady’s not going to fall into this gimmick. No way. Not yet, at least. He’s going to find his personal pocket and stay within it, and show us some good, unique footwork of his own. It’s too close to imitation — and, frankly, too high-risk if he were to call it wrong — for his first time broadcasting.
Just remember: It might seem a bit rehearsed for Week 1, but he needs to get his sea legs. The flourishes will come in time. They always do for Tom Brady.
As the greatest quarterback of all time once said, and would say often forever thereafter: LFG.
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