For Tom Brady and Fox, Sunday was a first step toward the broadcast that truly counts

It is sort of endearing that the man considered the greatest NFL player of all time, who has a 10-year, $375 million contract to talk about football games, came across as nervous to open his Fox broadcasting career.

Tom Brady — the 47-year-old, seven-time Super Bowl champion — sounded like a rookie out of the gate Sunday. His syntax was stilted. His interesting thoughts were limited. It was a bit awkward.

During the Dallas Cowboys’ blowout of the Cleveland Browns, Fox smartly showed Brady on camera a few times — if you land a star like Brady, you show him! — but he missed some gimme chances to display the humor and personality that we’ve been told was hidden by former head coach Bill Belichick in New England.

When play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt brought viewers into the booth in the first half, Brady tried to accentuate his team-first mentality by putting out a fist to bump with officiating analyst Mike Pereira. Pereira was looking away.

Brady kept his fist out, and Pereira finally got to him, but it was apropos for Brady’s debut — the timing was a bit off.

Brady eventually settled down a little and showed flashes. In the second quarter, he explained “breather plays” that are designed to give Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott a respite from contending with Browns All-Pro defensive lineman Myles Garrett by rolling out and moving away from the rush.

During garbage time, with the Cowboys up big, he displayed some charisma and passion, seemingly referring to Belichick, following an Erin Andrews report, by quipping, “I played for a coach that didn’t mind cussing his players out.” He then sincerely went into why this was a good thing, letting his competitive, do-it-the-right-way personality shine.

While in today’s social media environment, it can feel like a person has five seconds to make a first impression, in reality, Fox and Brady just need Brady to build during the season so he is at his best when the playoffs and Super Bowl come around.

As a player, that was his time. It is similar in broadcasting — especially when your network has the Super Bowl.

Fox Sports will probably garner around 28 million viewers, give or take, for Sunday’s game. On Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans, Brady is scheduled to analyze with more than 100 million people expected to watch.

If the growth Brady showed from the first to the fourth quarter continues, he should be fine. Brady gives Fox a lot to work with.

Fox Sports has already shown it can develop an analyst from off the field to the Super Bowl booth. Burkhardt and Greg Olsen called the big game two years ago and did it well.

Olsen was a rookie No. 1 that year, though he had the advantage of one full season with Burkhardt before his promotion.

Olsen, demoted to the No. 2 team with a pay reduction from the $10 million range to around $3 million per year, was on the Pittsburgh Steelers win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and delivered a master class on all angles, preceding Brady’s first act.

After agreeing to join Fox, Brady played one more season, retired, took a gap year and, from all accounts, worked really hard preparing for Sunday. In the NFL exhibition season, he called two-and-a-half games of live rehearsal in August.

During the weeks before the opening game, Fox Sports attempted to temper the expectations for Brady by limiting the pre-game chatter, but his producers’ big message, according to sources, was for Brady to be himself. It is not as easy as it may seem in fast-moving NFL action.

The mechanics of broadcasting an NFL game are about taking the complicated and making it simple. There is so much intricacy to a football game that head coaches often say they need to review the game film when they can survey all 22 on the field at the same time.

GO DEEPER

Tom Brady, in his NFL broadcast debut, was a man learning the job in real time

To be good as a game analyst, fans want to know inside information and analysis, however it must be explained, at a comprehensible level and quickly, between plays. Brady, especially early, offered too much remedial, player-speak, talking about how you don’t want negative yards and players have to bring juice.

He was feeling it out, but of course, he wasn’t given much grace on social media and even on other platforms.

The NFL’s “RedZone” channel host, Scott Hanson, even got into the act, on-air, questioning Brady’s enthusiasm as the Cowboys considered a 71-yard field goal attempt to end the first half.

“Brady’s got to get more excited than that in the booth,” Hanson said.

That’s actually not the issue with Brady. He showed enthusiasm. On Burkhardt’s touchdown calls, he could be heard saying, “Ohhh!”

On a fundamental level, this is not what you want as it prevents a play-by-player and the audience from a clean call. But hearing the player considered the greatest ever amped over a touchdown is kind of cool. Still, he needs to wait a few ticks. It is all about finding his voice in the booth.

At one point after he signed with Fox, Brady spoke about being like Johnny Miller, the famed acerbic golf analyst. He certainly wasn’t like Miller on Day 1. The job isn’t to just be critical, but Brady failed to question much.

Since he has retired he has made some headline observations, including that rookie quarterbacks aren’t really ready to play their first season.

Earlier Sunday, in Chicago, Caleb Williams, the No. 1 draft pick, only threw for 93 yards in his debut, but the Bears won.

Brady’s personal performance was sort of like Williams’. It was a win for Fox to have Brady on air, even if his performance wasn’t amazing.

Now, there are a lot of weeks between his next game Sunday and the Super Bowl. He and Fox have plenty of time. That said, if he still sounds like a rookie come Feb. 9, he won’t be the only one nervous.

(Top illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Jose Breton / Pics Action / NurPhoto via Getty Images; Icon Sportswire via Getty Images; Aaron M. Sprecher / Getty Images)