Brady could make an appearance for Fox during the networks multi-hour pregame show ahead of Super Bowl LVIIRay Seebeck/USA TODAY NETWORK
Fox has “nixed” the possibility that Buccaneers QB Tom Brady could debut on the network’s Feb. 12 Super Bowl LVII telecast, but “don't discount an appearance by Brady during the multi-hour pregame show,” according to Bob Raissman of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. Whenever Brady does retire, expect him to "move into” analyst Greg Olsen’s chair in a two-man booth with play-by-play voice Kevin Burkhardt. Raissman wrote the notion of Olsen being part of a “three-person configuration with Brady doesn’t make sense.” While he has “held his own,” Olsen has “not lit up the booth.” Raissman: “And he doesn’t transcend the game. That’s exactly what Brady does.” The totality of his persona “attracts casual fans as well as the hardcore.” Having dueling analysts would “only dilute Brady’s presence” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 12/31).
FIELD OR BOOTH? In N.Y., Andrew Marchand wrote Brady "could keep playing," which “feels as if it is more possible” after his divorce from Gisele Bündchen. He also could “retire and decide he wants to just take a year off, informing Fox Sports to hold his No. 1 seat on the top crew for a while longer.” Marchand notes there are some “pretty important folks" who believe that Brady will “never be in the Fox Sports booth.” These people’s theory is that the Fox Sports money “got so high that Brady just took it as a hedge against other things he might do after he stops playing.” Marchand also wrote whatever Brady does -- simply because he is Brady -- it is “going to be a big story,” which is “exactly why Fox wanted him so badly in the booth” next to Burkhardt (N.Y. POST, 1/2).
