It isn't easy working alongside Tom Brady.
The new Fox broadcaster and 23-year NFL superstar is set to make his broadcasting debut in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season for the Cowboys vs. Browns matchup. He'll be alongside Kevin Burkhardt as Fox's top broadcasting team for the new season, but getting on the field before games is already a slight issue for the new duo.
Brady's superstar status from his time in the NFL has affected his status and ability to navigate things with Fox so far.
Here's how Brady's popularity is affecting both himself and Burkhardt, specifically in their pregame routine.
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Tom Brady pregame routine: How popularity affects access
Burkhardt, assigned for play-by-play in the booth for Fox alongside Brady, recently appeared on the "Calm Down" podcast with Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson, where he explained the difficulties of Brady's popularity with current NFL players during pregame.
Per Awful Announcing, Burkhardt and Brady, along with their Fox crew, were doing a test broadcast for Aug. 11's Cowboys vs. Rams preseason matchup, but Brady's popularity with the players held them up a bit.
The current players all wanted to chat with him, which kept the two on the field up until 15 minutes before kickoff — a time when most broadcasters are already settled in and ready to get started.
That will obviously change during the regular season for broadcasts, but Burkhardt said that endless players were approaching Brady in his first go-around with Fox asking for on-the-field advice. Naturally, anybody and everybody wanted to talk to Brady.
“Going to the field is going to require like an extra three hours. It is like a circus just going down,” Burkhardt said, according to Awful Announcing. “We were in LA doing a practice game, and it took us 40 minutes just to get down to the elevator just to the corner of the end zone. I had to take a [picture] of he and Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs on the middle of the field. It’s wild.”
With Brady only retiring after the 2022 season — he announced his retirement in February 2023 — most players in 2024 know him as a teammate and opponent. That will continue to factor into Brady's Fox booth debut throughout his first season. However, players being willing to chat with Brady could also be an advantage that allows him to get extra pieces of information for the broadcast.
"I think that’s going to be fun on game day, just walking around with him and players want to talk to him and give him some information,” Buckhardt said.
What Kevin Burkhardt says about broadcast partner Tom Brady
The early results on Brady's broadcasting prowess seem to be positive, even with the recent reports surrounding how he'll be limited due to his pending partial ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Buckhardt spoke highly of Brady and how he's adjusting to the booth on the podcast, and it seems like the former quarterback is as coachable as ever.
“Like, I know you don’t know me well yet, but … can I tell you if something sucks or whatever?” Burkhardt said he asked Brady. “He’s like, 'Yes, like please tell me, like, coach me up.’"
Brady's desire to win and be the best he can at something isn't new, but seeing it on TV will be.
“He just wants to be great, he wants to be better, and I think that’s been the really fun part," Burkhardt said.
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Tom Brady Fox contract
Brady inked a 10-year, $375 million deal with to be an analyst for NFL games on Fox, according to a 2022 report by Andrew Marchand. With his debut, he becomes one of the highest-paid NFL broadcasters in the business.
Considering the NFL legend earned over $300 million in his playing career, per Spotrac, he could virtually double his career earnings with his second full-time job.
