Why the broadcast of Tom Brady never had a chance

Tom Brady probably haven’t had so many bad years in his life, but it’s probably fair to assume that 2024 wasn’t one of his better.

After signing a 10-year-old, $ 375 million deal with Fox Sports to become a main analyst on his NFL broadcasts, made Brady, who makes more money a year to call reviews. His unpolished behavior, his tendency to shout as if he is in a hug, his repeated use of the word “good” as his most lively descriptor (to the point that it began to feel like an incantation, or perhaps his safe words) , his banal, descriptions at the surface level of the action in the field, his … weird … inconsistent vocal cadence, it all ran NFL fans and media critics Batty from the other he started talking. With Brady, who calls his first Super Bowl on February 9, you can expect Brady Bashing, an obsession with the NFL Die-Hard’s all year, to go full Normie: You are hearing your grandmother say: ” What in the world is he talking about? “It’s been a year of full-on-brady back.

This should feel unusual for Brady. While the future Hall of Famer certainly faced his fair share of haters as an active player-from offenses as diverse as deflategate pseudo scandal to the time he had a make america great again hat in his cabinet he was also isolated from it Most of that because of the quality of his acting: After all, he was the goat. But when you retire and go into the media world, you are just another chump in a tie like the rest of us: It doesn’t matter how many touchdowns you can throw if you continue to wander in the middle of your sentences on national TV. Years of suspended animosity towards Brady has been released.

It is worth noting that Brady is not the worst TV company in the world, although it can say more about the state of the profession than it does about him. After all, he is a rookie, and ideally he would have had a year of calling lower profile events so he could improve before he was detached on the Super Bowl-Viewing audience. But you don’t send Tom Brady to broadcast something no game. The fact that Fox Sports paid him so much money meant that they had to promote him as a star, which ultimately is what caught him: he had to be big, immediately, and he wasn’t.

But more to that point: He had to be the Tom Brady we all remembered – a genius -quarterback, the winner of the Seven Super Bowl Rings, infallible. It should always end the moment he opened his mouth. It’s not because he’s an inherent terrible TV company. He’s just not the goat -TV company. It turns out that the ability to “win seven Super Bowls” and “Talking Extemporanty in four hours” is not directly connected. Brady’s TV spread could never live up to his game. Andy Rooney once wrote that he couldn’t be friends with his doctor, because once he learned all the things in the world, his doctor was bad, he wouldn’t be able to trust him as a doctor either. “When I saw him trying to change a tire, I wouldn’t let him near my triple bypass,” he said. This is Brady’s conundrum. Brady was honored as an athlete, but he is an average for the TV station below average. And nothing about Tom Brady should ever contain the word “average”. We don’t want Tom Brady not to be big for anything. Therefore, this was always created to fail.

Nor does it help that we do not want our legends to be people. All goats must have some mystery for them, a certain inherent distance between themselves and us mortals. Brady should have honestly have known this. There is a reason why Michael Jordan has never been a TV company. He only emerges to burn his legend and reminds young people who the real NBA goat is, and then he disappears. This remoteness is important. You will not see Bob Dylan or Beyoncé hosting Grammys or Meryl Streep or Jack Nicholson, who hosts Oscars. You have to let people miss you. This is especially true for an athlete who is exposed, the moment they retire, as they really are now is: Someone too old to do what they were most famous for. There is a fine line between “Hall of Famer” and “Dishe guy who doesn’t stop talking about the old days.” Therefore, Jordan is so smart that (mostly) remain silent. Let them remember how you were, not how you feel.

Brady is a competitive person who worked his way up from being a backup (and almost undeveloped) college player to be widely considered the best footballer who has ever lived. He certainly saw broadcasts as another challenge to be overcome, another opportunity to prove that all doubters are wrong. (The $ 37.5 million a year probably didn’t hurt either.) He didn’t. The good news for Brady and for the rest of us-is that despite the 10-year contract, I bet this experiment will soon end. Brady already has a striking eyes and becomes a minority owner of Las Vegas Raiders and consults about team and personnel cases, as it should be said, is obviously a conflict of interest as a TV company. Brady spent this season shouting at strangers and your grandmother in a way he has never been before. I suppose he is smart enough not to give them the privilege that is much longer. There is honor in silence. For him – and for us.

Will Leitch is the author of the upcoming novel Lloyd McNeil’s last tripa contributor New York Magazine and founder of the late sports site Deadspin.

This story appeared in the February 5th edition of the Hollywood Reporter -Magazine. Click here to subscribe.