1. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman went from Fox to ESPN. Al Michaels went from NBC to Amazon. Mike Tirico has been elevated as the voice of Sunday Night Football. Kirk Herbstreit added an NFL gig and joined Amazon. Kevin Burkhardt became Fox’s lead NFL play-by-play man. And then Tom Brady and Fox announced a shocking marriage.
There was still one domino left to fall after all these moves: Who would become Burkhardt’s partner on Fox until Brady decides to hang it up for real? That domino fell yesterday when the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported that Fox will elevate Greg Olsen to the No. 1 role (which means he will call this year’s Super Bowl) until Brady is ready to become a broadcaster.
This is a fascinating scenario for many reasons. It raises the question: Will Olsen be the No. 1 guy for one season? Two seasons? Three seasons? Nobody in the world, including seemingly Tom Brady, knows when Tom Brady is going to be done as a quarterback. Personally, I’d be stunned if Brady only played for one more season. I don’t think you go through a five-minute retirement just to come back for one season. Brady clearly wants to play until his abilities diminish and that hasn’t happened yet.
Will Olsen be totally fine going back to the No. 2 team when Brady is done playing?
And who is going to be Fox’s No. 2 analyst? (SI's Conor Orr has some suggestions for players he'd like to see in the booth one day). The network hasn’t named one yet, but the No. 2 analyst role is big because they get playoff games. Marchand has also reported that Drew Brees could be a possibility as Fox’s No. 2 analyst.
There could eventually be a scenario where Olsen is the No. 1 analyst, Brees is the No. 2 analyst and then Brady retires after this season and Olsen AND Brees have to get demoted, which would be wild.
Obviously, it’s a no-brainer for Olsen to go along with this plan. He has a chance to showcase his abilities and call the best games. Many people will think this could also be a tryout for Olsen. If he shines in his new role, you’d assume he’d become a commodity for other networks when Brady comes along and bumps Olsen.
There’s only one problem with their theory. There won’t be many, or any, No. 1 gigs open for a while.
Tony Romo signed a 10-year deal with CBS in 2020. Troy Aikman just signed a five-year deal with ESPN. Kirk Herbstreit just signed a deal with Amazon for Thursday Night Football.
Olsen’s best shot for a longtime No. 1 job could maybe be NBC? Clearly, NBC had thoughts about moving on from Collinsworth when it brought in Brees, but that didn’t work out.
The only thing we know for sure about all of this right now is that we still have some big NFL broadcasting movement ahead.
2. This was the best piece of content to come out of Thursday's Nick Saban–Jimbo Fisher drama.
3. Jayson Tatum's son had some high fives (actually, they were low fives) for the Celtics after their win against the Heat last night. Watch this video until the end to see what happened with the youngster and Grant Williams.
4. You'll recall that JJ Redick and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo debated Chris Paul vs. Bob Cousy a few weeks ago on First Take and Redick dropped the line, "He was being guarded by plumbers and firemen,” in regards to the Celtics legend.
It took about a month, but the 93-year-old Cousy responded to the diss Thursday on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
“People with less talent will always try to make a name for themselves by criticizing other people and hopefully getting some attention and perhaps increasing their credibility,” Cousy said.
“So when you respond to something like this, you play into their hands. I won’t do that, but I will defend the firemen and the plumbers that he referenced. And I’ll just give you a few of the names of these firemen that I played with and against during those years. How about Bill Russell, the aforementioned, not too bad a player. Wilt Chamberlain, remember that guy? He wasn’t bad. I guess he must have fought fires as well. But in any event, Wilt Chamberlain.”
5. This is simply the most perfect intro to an NFL ever game.
6. This week's SI Media Podcast is an all–Traina Thoughts edition. Sal Licata, from WFAN and SNY, who joins me every week for the segment, is on for the full show, where we discuss the following topics:
- NFL’s Thanksgiving and Christmas games
- Phil Mickelson’s betting
- Worst bets we’ve ever made
- Drew Brees’s future
- The best sports quote of the week
- Upcoming roast of Tom Brady
- Carmen Electra joining OnlyFans
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
