Fox signed Tom Brady to a 10-year, $375 million television contract last offseason to call games for the network upon his retirement.
Brady retired from football for the second time in his career on Feb. 1, but this time, he said it was “for good.”
Brady will take a year off and then plans to enter the booth in 2024, where he has long been expected to join the No. 1 announcing team as a color analyst alongside Kevin Burkhardt, given the financial commitment to the seven-time Super Bowl champion.
However, Brady would replace Greg Olsen in that scenario, which now seems like a gamble for Fox given how the retired tight end has performed in the booth since ending his playing career.
“There are one thousand things to worry about the week of the Super Bowl. Greg Olsen going out there and doing an amazing broadcast is not on my list,” Fox Sports executive Brad Zager told the New York Post on Saturday. “When I got this job, Greg was my pick. I was all about making sure Greg Olsen was there at the time. He was below Joe [Buck] and Troy [Aikman]. But once we saw what Greg could do during a full season, we had no doubts. I just loved Greg Olsen.
“If you could design from scratch, somebody coming off the field to the broadcast booth, you would give them so many characteristics that we see in Greg every day. …He just came in and was like, ‘I’m the new guy here. I want to be great at this, help me get there.’ And I think what people at home have seen is the sum of all those things.”
Olsen and Burkhardt will call Sunday’s Super Bowl for Fox, which will be the network’s last opportunity to host the game before Brady arrives in the booth. There will be decisions to be made for certain, but Olsen’s performance this season has made the decision to shakeup the top announcing team difficult for the network in the future.
