We now know why Fox seemed to have little issue letting Troy Aikman and Joe Buck walk this offseason.
In a bit of a stunner, Fox announced Tuesday that Tom Brady would become their lead NFL analyst upon his retirement. The New York Post then reported the monster terms of the agreement, which will run for 10 years.
But because Brady is still playing and Aikman departed, the Brady acquisition doesn’t solve any problems for this season. They’ve yet to make any officially announced decisions on who will keep the seat warm for Brady, but NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport indicated on the “Pat McAfee Show” that it’s looking like it will be Greg Olsen with new No. 1 play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt.
“I know some of the discussions revolve around Greg Olsen,” Rapoport said. “I asked him about it during the owner’s meeting, he politely declined comment. They have not yet made it official, I assume because they were waiting on this. There is the thought that he would join Kevin Burkhardt and hold the place for Tom Brady, which would be insulting on so many levels except that it’s – I don’t want to speak for Greg – except that it’s Tom Brady.”
To Rapoport’s point, it really is a tough spot for Olsen, who is an up-and-coming analyst who even during his playing days was committed to becoming -- and constantly improving as -- a broadcaster.
Obviously, adding Brady was a no-brainer for Fox and certainly not a referendum on Olsen, but that undoubtedly will play a factor in the former tight end’s next contract negotiation with the network seeing as Brady will be on the A-team for at least a decade.
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