Tom Brady’s broadcast future presents a new challenge for the ultimate champion

CNN
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Tom Brady was the ultimate winner on the court, but that success doesn’t guarantee the seven-time Super Bowl champion will make a smooth transition when he steps into the TV booth to start his new role as a senior NFL analyst. .

Brady, 45, who retired from the National Football League earlier Wednesday after an illustrious 23-year career, agreed last May to join Fox Sports when his age-defying career as a quarterback took a hit. ended.

Brady, whose intense preparation for games has been widely chronicled, has an unrivaled knowledge of the sport. If he can translate what he sees on the field as quickly as he processes plays as a quarterback, he could prove to be one of the best analysts around.

But getting from the field to the TV booth isn’t always easy, and being relaxed, making fun of yourself and not clamoring for attention can take time.

“It’s going to be a challenge. Tom is a pretty serious guy, at least in terms of public persona,” Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports who now runs his own sports television consultancy, told Reuters.

“He’s going to get a lot of money from Fox and I think he’s going to feel the pressure to entertain people, and up until now Tom’s method of entertaining people has been to play quarterback, show how good he is.”

The terms of Brady’s deal with Fox Sports were never disclosed, but media outlets said the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots quarterback agreed to a 10-year contract. worth $375 million.

Fox will air the Feb. 12 Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, but the network did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters if Brady would be on the roster.

Pilson suggests it would be better for Brady if his analytic debut didn’t come at the Super Bowl, as it would expose him right away in the most-watched NFL game of the year.

There was no shortage of players who became football analysts after their NFL careers, including Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Shannon Sharpe.

Rob Ninkovich, who won two Super Bowl titles with Brady in New England and now works as an NFL analyst for ESPN, told Reuters that talking football work on TV can help tone down some of the tougher parts. retirement hardest.

“Michael Jordan could go play a three-on-three pickup game somewhere and still, you know, still shoot a basket and feel like he’s playing basketball,” Ninkovich said. “Football players, unfortunately, you hang up and you will never put on a helmet, shoulder pads.

“He tries to fill that void with other activities, maybe a business or, you know, entrepreneurship or even television, always talking about football and being involved in football – but you don’t suffer the blows.”