The world is Tom Brady’s oyster. Multiple networks are interested in shucking his skills in a broadcast booth.
Among the many useful nuggets to emerge from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post this week regarding the lottery-prize merry-go-round in the presentation of NFL games on TV is this — both Fox and Amazon will call Brady about significant vacancies they’re each currently trying to fill.
Fox needs a No. 1 analyst after Troy Aikman jumped to ESPN. Amazon needs a Thursday night analyst, after being spurned by Aikman.
There’s no reason to think Brady would want to do it. But the phone call is cheap. Much cheaper than it would be to actually hire Brady.
He has become much more willing to speak in recent years, even if his primary platform for talking is inherently friendly and non-confrontational, since he owns the Let’s Go! podcast. Taking a high-profile TV job would keep him firmly in the public eye, and the total time commitment would allow him to handle other business interests that could position him, someday, to buy a team of his own.
Then there’s the question of whether he’d be good at it. Most would assume he would be. It was also once assumed that his boyhood idol, Joe Montana, would be, too. Joe Montana had a very short career at NBC; he didn’t like it, and he wasn’t as good as many thought he would be. (He probably didn’t like it, because he wasn’t good.) It’s possible that too much was expected of Montana, given his on-field exploits.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Brady may not be done playing. Plenty of people think he’ll be back, with a team other than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That would make him less inclined, obviously, to take a network job in 2022.