There are not many people who understand what Tom Brady attempted to do on Sunday afternoon, but Troy Aikman is one of them. Aikman, of course, is the lead analyst for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” one of the most accomplished color commentators in the history of NFL television.
But Aikman was also once a Hall of Fame-to-be quarterback transitioning into sports broadcasting. In 1998, two years before retiring from the NFL, Aikman worked some NFL Europe broadcasts, which gave him a taste of what NFL game broadcasting was like. He played two additional seasons before joining a Fox Sports booth with Dick Stockton and Daryl Johnston, then Fox’s No. 2 team behind Pat Summerall and John Madden. The next year, Fox Sports went with a three-person booth of Joe Buck, Cris Collinsworth and Aikman to replace Summerall and Madden. He then joined Buck in a two-person booth — and the rest is NFL broadcasting history.
As I watched and listened to Brady working the Dallas Cowboys’ 33-17 win over the Cleveland Browns as a rookie Fox Sports analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, I thought about how many reps Aikman had compared to Brady before he became a No. 1 analyst. Aikman learned the mechanics of television before having the glare of doing the biggest NFL games on television.
“Tom comes into this like Tony Romo as far as going right from the field to the booth,” Aikman told me last week. “On the one hand, he had the one year off to where he was really able to lock in and watch games and listen to the broadcasters. I know he’s had practice games, but it’s not the way it was done prior to Tony. I think the success that Tony had when he came into the booth opened the door for a guy like Jason Witten. Now you’ve got Tom Brady. …
“When you’re on live television and you’re kind of learning how to do the craft, you’re always up against the clock. You never really have as much time as you hope, and you say things that sometimes make no sense. I would be in the booth going, ‘Oh my gosh that was like the dumbest comment ever.’”
On Sunday, Brady came off as someone attempting to learn the craft in real-time. That’s not a criticism. It’s just reality. He first spoke on-air at 4:23 p.m. ET with the usual scene-setter stuff and was very deliberate over the first quarter. Everything felt a little slow, with he and Burkhardt clearly still finding a conversation rhythm. Brady got more comfortable as the broadcast continued, and I’d expect that to be the pattern as the season continues. If you desperately want me to grade him, I’d give him two-and-a-quarter goats out of four. Fox will take that for his first regular-season game.
Having watched Greg Olsen, Burkhardt’s former partner, all of last year and for some of Sunday’s Pittsburgh Steelers–Atlanta Falcons game, you really see the difference between someone who is a true No. 1 right now and Brady. Olsen takes viewers to second-level stuff often, and that’s where Brady is going to be challenged during these first couple of games. Here’s an example: After Dallas wideout Brandin Cooks scored in the first quarter on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott, the broadcast (and specifically Brady) let a couple of seconds of air time go by before offering something short about Prescott reacting to a blitz.
“It’s an all-out blitz,” Brady said. “They are bringing all six and they can only block five of them. Dak knows it and lays it up there to Brandin Cooks. He knows the defender has no help to the pylon. Great throw and catch.”
That’s perfectly fine commentary but nothing transformative that’s going to educate a viewer on being a smarter football fan — and that should be Brady’s ultimate goal. Interestingly, Fox came back to the play after a break, and that’s where Brady was able to give you some second-level stuff.
“Just great high IQ football here,” Brady said. “You have Dak Prescott here at the line of scrimmage. He sees the all-out blitz from (Browns defensive coordinator Jim) Schwartz’s defense and he changes the play. Lets everybody know, ‘OK, I have pressure.’ Signals to the receiver, ‘We’re going to run this three-man combination.’ They actually don’t handle the blitz very well. (Browns safety Juan) Thornhill is expecting the ball to come out quick. He’s got no help to the corner and he just lays it up there for an easy touchdown.”
This to me showed the promise of what he might become. It also showed you Aikman’s point: The lack of time is the hardest adjustment.
Brady found more comfort as the game got deeper and he’d serve himself well not to be afraid to show some humor, especially self-deprecating humor, because it helps someone that famous relate to an audience. He did that in the second quarter when Burkhardt joked about doing “his hair real nice” given he expected more booth shots with Brady there.
“The more we can do up here to provide the fan experience,” Brady said. That was genuinely funny.
Same when Brady got animated following a Jerry Jeudy touchdown catch in the third quarter. With the camera on Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson on the Cleveland sideline, Brady went into a mini-LFG mode.
“That’s the way to answer,” he said. “That gives you some confidence. ‘Hey, Coach, we can throw the ball. Let’s open it up a little bit. Let’s see what I can do.’ He’s going to the sideline to get a little confidence, a little pep in their step. Good drive by the Browns.” That’s injecting a little personality and life into the broadcast, and he’ll need to channel much more heading forward.
Brady might have had his best moments in the fourth quarter as the game went deep into snooze land.
“I played with a coach that wasn’t afraid to cuss out his players either,” Brady said of former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick before he said some interesting things on accountability and being told the truth as an NFL player. All producers will tell you that blowouts are when the production really earns its money.
The Cowboys-Browns game ran in most Fox media markets (Washington at Tampa Bay was the only other Fox game at the time). The viewership number is going to be massive, and that means feedback on Brady from millions. Everyone will have an opinion.
Fox lead NFL producer Richie Zyontz, one of the best in the business, often tells his broadcasters to slow down, be concise and project the game forward, and that will be Brady’s goal each week, especially the last part. As a young NFL quarterback must learn to slow the game down, Brady’s aim will be to master the mechanics of NFL broadcasting to get cogent points out with limited time.
He showed enough on Sunday that makes me believe he will improve during the year. And he’ll need to improve because it’s a huge year for Fox given they are this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster. He also has a very good partner in Burkhardt who throughout the game did his best to lead him to places where Brady was comfortable. The crew has the Cowboys again next week (against the New Orleans Saints) and that’s a smart assignment by Fox (outside of the obvious point of putting Cowboys games on your biggest broadcast) because the roster familiarity will be very helpful to its most famous broadcaster.
The debut is in the books. More work comes now.
(Top photo of Tom Brady: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
