Joe Buck Had Strong Message for Tom Brady Critics After Broadcasting Debut
Tom Brady's first game in the Fox Sports broadcast booth came and went this past weekend. It was a mixed bag, as perhaps should have been expected. Brady was not an instantaneous hit, but nor was he so bad we're left to wonder if FOX made a mistake paying him nearly $400 million to join the network.
Still, there was plenty of criticism floating around after Brady called the Dallas Cowboys' win over the Cleveland Browns, and Joe Buck was having none of it. Appearing on Monday's episode of the Michael Kay Show, Buck said it's "grossly unfair" to dish out judgement on Brady after all of one game.
"I think it's absolutely impossible to grade anybody and say somebody is going to be good, not good after one game," Buck said. "This is a hard job. We all do our piece of it. You have to be able to settle in, know what you need to know. ... It's grossly unfair that everybody wants to weigh in after five seconds. That's not the way it works."
A fair point from the longtime broadcaster. It is going to take Brady a while to settle in and there isn't much to take away from his first-ever game. It wasn't a super-hot start, but with time he'll grow more comfortable and likely get better.
A work in progress, in other words. Buck clearly hopes some will heed his words and give Brady some kind of grace period as he gets through his first broadcasts.