Tom Brady and FOX Put This Pressure on Themselves

Tom Brady's debut underwhelmed. And that's perfectly fair to point out.

Brady's debut is up for inspection. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

It's sort of rare to reach a public consensus on anything in 2024 but everyone seems to agree that Tom Brady's debut performance was rather underwhelming, which is entirely to be expected for a work in progress. Personally this is the least surprising thing in the world even though it's been very trendy over the past year for people to boldly assert that the seven-time Super Bowl winner would be great at this, don't worry. And he very well may become great in short order.

But live television is super hard and there are decades upon decades of Brady being less than a mega-watt bundle of charisma and energy that probably should have given a bit more credence.

It doesn't even seem particularly useful to go through the Week 1 performance with a fine-toothed comb with bundles of specifics. Announcing is still more of an art than a science and there's no magical regiment the famously regimented Brady can follow to hit the ground running alongside the greats in the industry.

Instead, let's do the dangerous thing where we explore the backlash to the backlash. Peruse social media and you'll find no shortage of Brady defenders in the comments, arguing that it's not fair to judge him based on one Sunday afternoon and he needs to be afforded the time to develop. Which is totally true—yet not entirely the point.

Sure, it's not fair that the eyes of the world are on Brady, dissecting every editorial choice he makes. Yet this is an I Think You Should Leave hot dog costume situation because he and FOX don't have to look too hard to find those responsible for this. More than that, that's exactly what they wanted.

I have no desire to be overly critical of someone trying something extremely new and monumentally difficult. But just like when he was playing quarterback, all that anyone can do is examine the tape he's created. He not doing this for charity. He's doing it in part for the $375 million paycheck that comes with the gig. FOX made the bold move to supplant Greg Olsen, who is fantastic, in the No. 1 booth even after he shined in a Super Bowl broadcast.

That was the gamble—to the extent there's any risk because it may not ultimately matter how good Brady is as long as he's Brady in the booth. Perhaps expectations were too high and the grading is too tough but that is the perfectly reasonable state of play.

Brady is on to the next week and it would be surprising if there wasn't improvement and adjustments. He will be better. Maybe not immediately. It'll be fair to point out the shortcomings and successes as he gets there. That is the game.

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