NFL legend Tom Brady believes he will be a ‘scathing’ commentator once he decides to finally retire and enter the booth.
Earlier this year, FOX Sports announced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback would join the network as a leads analyst following his retirement. He is set to earn $37.5 million annually over a ten-year contract, which is remarkably more than his current salary as the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It seemed as though Brady was set to kickstart his commentary career earlier this year. Back in February, Brady retired from the NFL after 22 years but the 45-year-old quickly reversed his decision and returned amid much fanfare.
Ultimately, FOX Sports cannot be sure when Brady will finally walk away from the NFL and call games on their network. However, the seven-time Super Bowl champion is certainly confident he can ruffle some feathers and impress.
On his Let’s Go! podcast on SiriusXM, Brady and co-host Jim Gray welcomed NBA legend and broadcaster Charles Barkley as a guest. During the interview, Brady revealed his admiration for Barkley’s honesty and suggested he could be ‘scathing’ in the booth like golf announcer Johnny Miller.
“When you play with Randy Moss, when you play with Wes Welker, when you play with [Rob] Gronkowski and [Julian] Edelman and Mike Evans, you see greatness,” Brady said on the show. “And there’s a standard for perfection that I want to see the game played at. Because I value the sport, I value the coordination of this incredible chess match that’s happening, the play within every play.
“And I just feel like there’s probably more Johnny Miller in me, where when I used to watch him on golf telecasts, it was just scathing sometimes. ‘What, that guy choked under pressure?’ or whatever. That’s essentially how I end up seeing the game a lot now.
“Not that I want to be negative, but I do want to point out - and [Bill] Belichick taught this to me a lot - it’s hard to win a game in the NFL, there’s more games lost in the NFL than they’re won. If you don’t screw it up, you’ve got a great chance to win. Because most people do just mess it up.”
Brady’s revelation of his potential style of commentary would be a stark contrast to popular CBS analyst Tony Romo, who showers praise on quarterbacks and offensive ingenuity with infectious enthusiasm. However, it seems Brady could be blunt - he has in the past that 90% of the things he says publicly he doesn’t mean.
When thinking about his potential style in the booth, Brady added: “When I watch football now, the only thing I see - you know, nine out of 10 - is ‘that was a really bad play.’ As opposed to the ‘wow,’ the spectacular play that [Patrick] Mahomes made or the spectacular play that Josh Allen made.”
Time will tell to see how Brady is in the booth, but he is still hoping to claim an eighth Super Bowl title before he calls time on his iconic career. After coming off their bye week, Brady’s Buccaneers travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns on Sunday.
