NFL legend Tom Brady made his debut as Fox’s new lead analyst after the network paid a whopping $375 million to get him on the air. But fans were not impressed by his first day on the job.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion joined the network’s No. 1 team to comment on Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns.
“I do what they tell me. I understand that,” Brady said on the broadcast with a laugh, per Associated Press. “I’m still a rookie in here.”
While Brady was met with open arms by his new colleagues on the air, fans on social media brutally criticized his performance and passed judgement on Fox for choosing Brady to replace Greg Olsen as the network’s lead NFL analyst.
“Finally, something Tom Brady fucking sucks at,” one fan wrote on X.
“I don’t want to overreact to week 1 but Tom Brady is the worst announcer in the NFL,” another user commented.
Others were unimpressed by Brady’s seemingly lackluster commentary on the game, with one noting, “Tom Brady just said it’s hard to make 10, but really hard to make 20 yards. That’s what $375 million worth of analysis gets you folks.”
Brady retired from football in 2023 after three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But the NFL MVP has gone down in football history as one of the greatest players ever after winning seven Super Bowl titles.
Fox hyped up his broadcast debut with a commercial showing the MVP at different ages and teams to illustrate his decades-long career, as he asked himself why he didn’t take some time off from working instead of becoming an analyst.
“What they’re really asking is, ‘Why don’t you quit football?’ They don’t understand that you live and breathe for football. Because you’re Tom Freaking Brady,” he says in the commercial. “And our football journey isn’t even close to done.”
But Brady’s “terrible” performance Sunday evening has fans mourning Olsen’s demotion. “Tom Brady just wasn’t exciting to listen to. Can’t believe we lost Olsen for this,” one viewer wrote on X.
Some fans say they saw it coming. “After 2 decades of measured, boring interviews with no cadence or charisma, Tom Brady gave us exactly the same thing on Sunday in the booth. It’s not a criticism, it’s who he is and why would the network think he’d be any different than that?” one wrote.
Olsen finished his final season as Fox’s top NFL commentator on a positive note by winning a Sports Emmy for outstanding personality earlier this year. Olsen has remained on the job even through the news that Brady would be replacing him after he penned a 10-year, $375 million deal in 2022.
Olsen will remain at Fox through the 2024 NFL season but will be demoted to the network’s No. 2 team. The New York Post reports he will be taking a $7 million pay cut with the demotion.
“I knew very well what I was signing up for,” Olsen told The Athletic earlier this year. “I’ve always said I’m a big boy. I understand the rules of engagement. … All I can do is try to be as good as humanly possible and make it very difficult (for Fox Sports management).”
He added, “I’d be doing those guys a disservice and I’m doing myself and my team a disservice if I went into it half-assed that I’m just a placeholder until Brady comes in and takes my spot. That’s not in anyone’s best interest.”