CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Greg Olsen, who lit up opposing defenses for nine years as a Pro Bowl tight end for the Carolina Panthers, has had an extraordinary start to his second career.
Consider that Olsen, 37, will be Fox Sport’s lead NFL analyst on Sunday for the Super Bowl, when Kansas City plays Philadelphia (6:30 p.m. kickoff). It’s a milestone few TV broadcasters ever achieve, and Olsen has gotten there in his second full-time season as an NFL analyst. Alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, Olsen will be seen and heard Sunday by a Super Bowl viewing audience that will exceed 100 million people.
Some uncertainty looms as to how long Olsen will remain the No. 1 analyst at Fox. Tom Brady’s latest retirement — for good this time, according to the game’s greatest quarterback — means that the 45-year-old Brady will likely replace Olsen in the lead analyst seat for the 2024 NFL season, according to a timetable Brady laid out in an interview Monday.
That means Olsen should have another season after this one as Fox's lead analyst, but would then drop to No. 2 NFL analyst for Fox for 2024. It’s a change not many football fans would notice but that Olsen certainly would, given his competitive streak and how much he has already improved this season as an announcer known for his crisp diagnosis and Everyman language.
Olsen is the first guest for Season 2 and the 16th guest overall for “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” — The Charlotte Observer’s multimedia project that aims to talk to sports icons about their unique journeys to stardom in ways you’ve never heard before. A fuller version of this interview is also available as a free podcast if you search “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” wherever you get your podcasts.
Olsen lives with his wife Kara and their three children — Tate, Talbot and T.J. — in Charlotte. He is almost as well-known for his charity work in the Queen City as he is for his football and broadcasting talents. We did this interview at a Charlotte steakhouse called “Steak 48,” which on Feb. 27 will host an Olsen charity event to benefit his “The HEARTest Yard” initiative.
All of the donations from the event will go to support families of children with congenital heart diseases like Olsen’s son, T.J., who was treated at Atrium Health’s Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte.
In our conversation, Olsen discussed Brady, the upcoming Super Bowl, how T.J. is doing after a heart transplant in June 2021 and why Carolina’s loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 still gnaws at him so much that in his head he’s replayed the game “probably a thousand times.”
This interview — conducted before Brady’s retirement was made official — has been edited for clarity and brevity.
— Scott Fowler: You’re about to call your first Super Bowl in the booth. Are you nervous about it?
— Greg Olsen: I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. I don’t know if nervous is the right word, but you’re kind of anxious. You’re ready for it to be here. You have so many people that offer you up advice. I remember getting advice before I called the Thanksgiving Day game this year. ... And my first-ever playoff game ... I’ve been able to kind of slowly, gradually call bigger and bigger games. But as we know, there’s nothing like the Super Bowl.
I think the fact that I’m able to do it in such a short period of time is less a testament to me and just more of a testament to Fox believing in me, before I even said I wanted to do this.
I was a player back in 2017 and people lost their minds because on my bye week they gave me the opportunity to call a game… They believed in me from the very beginning.
This year being on the “A” team, being on the lead crew, going through the entire playoffs, NFC Championship, and then culminating out in Arizona for the Super Bowl. Nervous, anxious, excited — I would say it’s kind of a blend of all of those.
— Q: So explain something to me. When Tom Brady retires, what happens?
— A: Well, that’s the $375 million question (Note: In May 2022, Brady signed a reported 10-year, $375 million contract to be Fox Sports’ lead analyst once he retired).
And to be honest with you, I don’t have the answer. I don’t even know right now if Fox has the answer. (Note: Brady said Monday that he won’t begin his Fox career until the 2024 season).
We knew going in (to the 2022 NFL season) exactly what the situation was. I was on the “B Crew” last year with Kevin (Burkhardt). Joe (Buck) and Troy (Aikman) ended up leaving to go to ESPN Monday Night Football and that left an opening with the Fox “A Crew” — an opening that hadn’t been there in around 20 years. ... Kevin, early on, was told that he was going to be the lead play-by-play guy. And the question was, who was going to be in the seat next to him?
I was always in the running. ... But at the same time, I’d only done one full season (or broadcasting). ... So when the situation with Tom came up, and he signed a contract, even though he was going to play another year, at least — it made things a little interesting ... but I knew what I was getting into.
I understand the reality of the situation. If it’s just one year (on the “A Crew”) — make the most of it, have some unbelievable experiences, call some of the biggest games in NFL history. And that’s how I’ve looked at it from the beginning.
I can’t control what Tom does. I can’t control what the powers that be at Fox do. But I can control how good of a job I do. I can control how hard I prepare and the energy and the fun that I bring to the broadcast. And I’ll let the rest of it just kind of settle itself out.
— Q: You mentioned the elephant in the room this year in September when you first had a production meeting with Tom Brady the day before you called one of his games with Tampa Bay, correct?
— A: Yeah. I talked with Kevin leading up to the game and said, “We’ve got to just address it. I don’t know how Tom feels. I never spoken to him about it. But listen, I’m doing a production meeting with him, and potentially he could be taking my job. It’s a weird dynamic.”
So we were just sitting there, shooting the (breeze) a little bit, and I was like: “Tom, you should just leave this TV stuff to me, man. It’s miserable. I’m not going to lie.” (Laughs). And he got a kick out of it. It just kind of ripped the Band-Aid off.
— Q: You are the rare tight end who has become a broadcasting star. Most lead analysts for the networks are traditionally quarterbacks.
— A: Yeah, and the reason that I was drawn to calling the games, frankly, vs. doing studio stuff is that the studio stuff is a lot more résumé-dependent. And if you want to sit at one of those big desks, you’re wearing gold jackets (signifying membership in the Pro Football Hall of Fame). And you’re typically a quarterback.
And frankly, I knew for me that the only way I was ever going to ascend to being in that top category, that “A Crew” or that top studio show was going to be by just being good at it. It was not going to be that I was going to get the seat because of playing quarterback on a team out of New York City and playing in Super Bowls and winning them. That was not me. And I was OK with that.
I think the reason why I was drawn to calling games is not everyone can do it. I think we’ve learned that over the last couple of years, where prominent players or prominent people have tried to get into the booth. And they learned very quickly, it’s hard. There’s a lot going on. You’re going to talk for three hours, and a lot of it is often just winging it.
So it’s not for everyone. And I think that was what drew me to it. I knew that as long as I was good, I could ascend.
— Q: Let’s talk about why we’re at Steak 48. You have a charity event coming up in Charlotte on Feb. 27th.
— A: Steak 48 has really been an unbelievable addition to the culinary experience here in Charlotte. And about a year and a half ago, some of the owners of Steak 48 approached us. They were aware of some of our work with Levine’s Children’s Hospital through our program the HEARTest Yard. And they offered up a similar event that they had done at some of their other locations.
They said, “We will provide the food, we will provide the restaurant, all we ask is that you take care of our servers and our team. We would love for you guys to bring all your nearest friends, donors, companies that you work with, and we will have an unbelievable night.”
All of the money gets donated to the HEARTest Yard, which of course we pass through to the families we serve at Levine Children’s Hospital… (The first event raised $223,000 for charity). So we’re doing it again in a couple of weeks with 250 of our closest friends, to tell the story of what the HEARTest Yard is.
— Q: For those who don’t know your personal connection to the HEARTest Yard or what it actually is, explain that.
— A: The HEARTest Yard is a program my wife Kara and I started back in 2013. Shortly after I was traded here to Carolina to live in Charlotte, my wife and I found out that our yet-to-be-born son, T.J. was diagnosed with a very serious heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
He was born with a non fully-functioning heart. Through the subsequent years to follow, he had four open-heart surgeries. And then in the summer of 2021, he had his heart transplant.
And so the HEARTest Yard is our family’s program that we run through our foundation…. We built a 25,000-square foot HEARTest Yard Congenital Heart Center, which is attached over to Levine Children’s Hospital here in Charlotte. ... We just launched our second facility out in Charleston at MUSC children’s hospital. So we are kind of spreading our wings and trying to reach across more of the Carolinas.
— Q: As you mentioned, T.J. had a heart transplant in June 2021. Give us an update on how he’s doing now.
— A: He’s doing great. He’s in fourth grade and is 10 years old.
Last summer he celebrated his one-year anniversary, so he’s about a year and a half out now (from his heart transplant). He tried basketball for the first time this year through school. That was something that he never could really do (pre-transplant). It was a little too cardio-dependent and exhausting for him.
He’s played baseball the most. He’s healthy. He’s growing. Big and strong. From the day he was born from the surgeons to the nurses to the team, and then of course now his transplant cardiology team that follows and handles his care now, it’s been truly remarkable.
— Q: You’re broadcasting a Super Bowl and you played in one, too — after the 2015 season, with the Panthers against Denver. I believe you guys actually were a better team overall than Denver. I don’t know if you agree with that?
— A: There’s no question in my mind.
— Q: So what happened?
— A: Man, we could do a whole episode about that. I’ve played that game back probably a thousand times in my brain. I think first and foremost, if we played them 10 times, we’d probably win seven. I wouldn’t say we’d win nine or 10. But I think we’d win more than half. I think we were better.
I think we were more balanced. I think their defense was dominant. I think our defense was dominant.
We had the No. 1 offense in the league that year, we were averaging 30 points a game in the playoffs. And then we scored 40-something in the NFC Championship (Carolina won the NFC championship over Arizona, 49-15). We were rolling. Our offense was better than their offense. Their defense was probably equally as dominant as ours was that year.
But at the end of the day, their defense had a bigger impact on the game because of the touchdown on the sack (of Cam Newton), and because of the forced fumbles. As good as our defense played that day, our offense was so bad. It was uncharacteristic of that season.
And our defense just couldn’t do enough to carry us.
And for as bad as we played, I remember vividly standing there in the fourth quarter, when we were down only one score. One score. We got possession two times. And we just never could get it.
— Q: If you could change one thing about that game, what would you do differently?
— A: I don’t think there was anything schematic that gave us a disadvantage. You hear coaches say missed opportunities all the time. ... It’s what makes the NFL so unique.
In playoff series (like most other pro sports have), you can get them tomorrow. In this, you get one shot. I’m sitting here saying if we played them 10, we might win six or seven. But we’re 0-1, they’re 1-0, and that’s it. We peaked in the NFC Championship.
— Q: Is that your biggest regret, losing that game?
— A: Yeah. I think everybody looks back on their career entirely different if we win that game, from Ron (Rivera) to Cam, to all of us. To have a Super Bowl? When I think back on my career, that’s the only thing I wasn’t able to accomplish.
If we had been Super Bowl champion, we arguably would have had the greatest season in NFL history. I know the Miami Dolphins went undefeated in 1972, but we would have been the first 18-win Super Bowl champion in NFL history. And we were there. We had a shot and we just didn’t finish it.
— Q: You coach your three kids a lot in various Charlotte sports leagues. Isn’t Luke Kuechly your defensive coordinator on your youth football team?
— A: Yep. He’s under contract.
— Q: What sort of salary does Luke Kuechly get these days?
— A: (Laughs) We do pizza at least once a week. We have a coaches’ lunch meeting every Thursday at a local restaurant. We’ve kind of moved it around. So his compensation is pretty good. You can’t really match that. Especially (Panthers owner Dave) Tepper. He can’t match that.
