I can not for the life of me understand what Fox sees in Tom Brady as a color commentator.
First, they gave him a ten-year $375 million contract to call NFL football games as a color commentator before he had even called one game. Not only that, he was given one year to prepare. Greg Olsen, who had been doing what most observers deemed a great job as the color commentator on the Fox NFL #1 team, got demoted in favor of Brady, who hadn’t done a thing as a color commentator to show that he had earned that job. So much for proving yourself first.
Now, in fairness, that is not the only time something like that has happened. As one example that sticks out in my mind, in 1989, after Bill Walsh had stepped down as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, NBC hired him and immediately paired him with Dick Enberg on their #1 broadcast team. Merlin Olsen, who had been on that team for many years, was demoted. That did not seem right at the time either. However, that was NBC’s decision, just as it was Fox’s decision to give Brady the number one position with no prior experience.
The bigger issue is number two: Brady’s obvious conflict of interest as a part owner of an NFL franchise. The NFL has recognized this and as put restrictions on what Brady can do while broadcasting a game. One such restriction is that he is not allowed to criticize the officials, and there are others. How Fox does not see this obvious conflict of interest is beyond me.
As food for thought for consipracy theorists, Brady is part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, who play in the same division as the Kansas City Chiefs. Will this affect how Brady views some close plays that could go either way?
I think Fox has lost a lot of credibility employing Brady under those conditions.