Tom Brady's first season as an NFL broadcaster will be under an incredibly strong microscope. He is Tom Brady, after all. Everything he does is of great interest to the general public. But as the former quarterback knows well, there are no bright lights quite like that of the NFL.
For most, opinions on Brady will come down to a handful of viral clips that circulate on social media platforms over the season and into the playoffs. These clips could be good or bad, but either way they'll inform the larger audience of Brady's current status as an announcer until there are north of 20 million pairs of eyes on him in the postseason.
Here, we'll break down those clips. It will serve as a window into how Brady performed in his most recent appearance and a barometer of his progress as the season goes on.
This week, Brady called the Kansas City Chiefs-San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl LVIII rematch. Here's how he did.
Best
Building off a strong week, Brady put forth another solid effort in the booth with far more highlights than lowlights. He sounded as loose as ever, made a few quips, and there were no obvious points where his newfangled ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders forced him to veer away from criticism. Which is more or less what FOX is paying for. If he never gets better, the network probably still feels good about their $375 million investment.
The top moment for this column came when Brady started talking about Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Viewers hear color commentators sing his praises all the time but it is hard to communicate how good he is to an audience that's never been in an NFL facility. It usually comes down to the idea that if the unit as a whole is good, then the coordinator is good, which isn't terribly interesting.
But when Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, talks about how much of a pain it was to play Spagnuolo and his blitz packages dating back to the most famous upset in NFL history, the 2007 Super Bowl? That gets the point across.
It maybe wasn't as much a teaching moment for Brady as it was a moment for him to get a joke off about the "bane of his existence," but that's the impact of having a recently-retired great player in the booth. Even the throwaway comments shine a different light on common concepts for the audience.
Tom Brady calls Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo "the bane of my existence." pic.twitter.com/dIQCtygAGb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 20, 2024
Worst
There was no singular lowlight for Brady this week, which is a big step for him and FOX. There were still a few trip-ups, of course. Andrew Marchand over at The Athletic pointed out Brady is still working on instinctively knowing what the audience wants, as exhibited by a monologue about tight end Noah Gray that came after another certified crazy Patrick Mahomes throw. But Brady has tampered down his "oohs" and found a decent rhythm while speaking alongside Kevin Burkhardt.
What this tells us is that, while Brady will definitely still have some bad moments, he's gotten out of the rookie woods where a misstep was a constant threat. Instead he's now moved into the realm of fans complaining that he isn't good enough— that he may be perfectly adequate but he doesn't add much value to the viewing experience. An absence of greatness is an improvement over the presence of obvious flaws but at this level the audience will complain as much about the former as the latter.
Brady is unlikely to take that next step anytime soon, or maybe even ever. It's hard! But the shift in the conversation reflects his progress in his new profession, and that we've reached this point means he has improved. If only slightly.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Best & Worst of Tom Brady in the NFL Broadcast Booth: Week 7.
