Tom Brady is arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. Judging by the reaction to his debut with the Fox NFL broadcast team, however, he may have some work to do as a color analyst.
Sports talking heads from Colin Cowherd to Dan Patrick criticized Brady’s debut, but perhaps no one was harsher than WFAN’s Evan Roberts. The Evan and Tiki cohost laid into Brady, 47, on the New York sports talk show he shares with former NFL player Tiki Barber.
“I think he’s awful,” Roberts, 41, told Barber. “I think he’s an embarrassment to the profession. I think he’s that bad. He’s terrible.”
Fox signed Brady to a broadcast deal while he was still playing that kicked in this season. It’s reportedly worth $375 million over 10 years, which is more money than he earned in salary in his 23 seasons as a player.
Barber, 49, agreed with Roberts, bashing a conflict of interest which renders Brady unable to prepare for a broadcast in the same way as his new peers. The NFL does not allow Brady to enter team facilities or participate in production meetings with team staff because he is also a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Those meetings are an integral part to a broadcaster’s preparation in the days leading up to a game.
“I don’t know how he does this without talking to anybody,” Barber said. “You get a feel of who these guys are and what’s important. What’s the culture? You feel that when you go and you have conversations with guys and he’s been in locker rooms for so long, he’d know…You just know, you feel it. and he can’t get any of that.”
Brady, however, was known as a player for being meticulous, and seemed to have done plenty of research on the two teams he was covering, the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing argued Brady even sounded over-prepared.
Other criticisms, from Roberts and others, seem to be correctable and simply a matter of gaining experience. Patrick called out his uncomfortable pauses and rocky cadence. Cowherd called him “choppy” and said he sounded nervous.
“Listening to him, and I’ll try to be fair, maybe he’ll be better in four or five weeks,” Roberts added. “He says obvious things, he also has a weird voice. I hate to pick on weird voices…but I don’t know, it was very tough to listen to.”
Making Brady’s job a little easier, he will stick with the Cowboys in Week 2. He’ll call their game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
