Brady’s agent says the former QB will fulfill his 10-year contract with Fox.
1. Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer broke the news Thursday that Tom Brady will return to Fox’s lead NFL booth next season. Brady’s agent, Don Yee, told Fischer, “Tom has had a tremendous amount of fun working with Fox this year, and he’s really excited about the future with Fox and his growth on their team. And this year was the first year of a long relationship.”
Brady, who signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox, gave no indications at all that he wouldn’t be back with the network for Year 2, despite having an ownership role with the Raiders, so this was not exactly bombshell news.
The biggest takeaway here for the NFL fan is that if you were hoping Brady would focus 100% of his attention on the Raiders so that Greg Olsen could be reunited with Kevin Burkhardt, it isn’t happening any time soon.
The Olsen situation remains fascinating and frustrating. You can make the argument that he is the best NFL analyst on TV. I have Olsen as the second-best analyst behind Troy Aikman, but if you’re take is that Olsen is the best, I wouldn’t dispute it.
The fact that Olsen doesn’t have a lead job is a huge disservice to NFL fans. He was sorely missed during the wild-card round last week and it’s a shame Olsen won’t be calling one of the four divisional playoff games this weekend, because he absolutely should be. When someone is as good at his job as Olsen, having him on the sidelines during the most important games of the season sucks.
Not only are we being deprived of Olsen in the postseason, but it also appears we will be deprived of Olsen calling the biggest games for a while.
Tony Romo has five years left on his contract with CBS. NBC’s Cris Collinsworth recently signed a new deal with NBC. Kirk Herbstreit has two years remaining on his contract with Amazon Prime, as does Aikman with ESPN.
It’s hard to imagine how Olsen can get a lead job at this moment. And that’s a loss for every NFL viewer.
2. If you need to be even more pumped up for this week’s Ravens-Bills/Lamar Jackson–Josh Allen battle, CBS has you covered with this hype video.
3. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is taking some heat for this comment, but he’s 100% right.
That Saturday when the only college football game being played the entire day is Army-Navy is absolutely a wasted day. The Army-Navy game can get a standalone window at noon or 3:30 or 8 p.m., but there’s no reason for it to be the only game scheduled on that Saturday every single year.
4. Huge props to Commanders kicker Zane Gonzalez for being so open this week about dealing with OCD. The Washington Post ran a great feature on Gonzalez. He also spoke publicly about what he goes through.
5. Charles Barkley is all over the TikTok ban that is supposed to come on Sunday.
6. A new Sports Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features a conversation with The Athletic’s sports media reporter, Richard Deitsch.
Topics covered include why the NFL’s playoff ratings have been down, NFL broadcasters; what Deion Sanders coaching the Dallas Cowboys would mean for networks; Tom Brady’s alleged “conflict of interest” as part Raiders owner calling a Lions game while trying to hire Detroit’s offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson; a disappointing college football playoff rating; Notre Dame’s national appeal; the usefulness of NFL rules analysts in the booth; the WWE’s new partnership with Netflix and more.
Following Deitsch, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s subjects include NFL betting, the NFL divisional playoff games, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo meeting Timothée Chalamet on the red carpet for A Complete Unknown, a new Jerry Springer documentary, Sal getting in trouble at home and much more. Plus, there is a surprise appearance from Russo.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of the divisional round this weekend, here’s some old-school CBS with Pat Summerall and John Madden doing the intro for the 1986 playoff game between the Niners and Giants.
