Is Tom Brady any good at broadcasting? That’s what we’re about to find out. FOX Sports paid handsomely to get the retired quarterback into the booth with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, and his first opportunity to try out this new role comes on Aug. 18 when the New Orleans Saints visit the San Francisco 49ers for a nationally-broadcast preseason game.
But Brady won’t be on the call, per former USA Today columnist Rudy Martzke. FOX Sports wants to wait and introduce him in Week 1’s regular season game between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns, so instead it’ll be Adam Amin and Mark Sanchez on the mic for the Saints-49ers exhibition game.
It makes sense if Brady is uncomfortable seeing the Saints again so soon. They beat him more often and more handily than any other opponent in his storied NFL career, and they ran him out of the NFC South and into retirement. Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers were swept twice in the 2020 and 2021 regular seasons, and no team posted a higher career points differential against him than the Saints.
Brady will have to see them again in his new capacity at some point — their late-afternoon matchups on FOX with the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams in Weeks 9 and 13 stand out — but it won’t be this soon. And we’re imagining he’s at least a little grateful for that.