This Is the End of Kevin Burkhardt–Greg Olsen … or Is It?

Also in Traina Thoughts: An athlete-gambling story for the ages; salty Cubs fan on ‘Jeopardy!’; ESPN host criticizes ESPN and more.

1. By the end of Sunday night, it will be the end of the road for two NFL teams, with two others going on to Super Bowl LVIII.

It will also be the end of the road for Fox’s popular No. 1 NFL broadcast team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen. Theoretically.

Fox put a plan in place two years ago that after a year off from football, Tom Brady would join Burkhardt as its lead analyst starting with the 2024 season. Olsen would then drop to the network's No. 2 booth.

So that means when the Lions-Niners game concludes Sunday night, Burkhardt and Olsen will sign off for their final game together.

When the deal was announced, many people (not me) were skeptical that Brady would ever call a game for Fox. But as time has gone by, with Brady sharing his opinions and takes more and more, the general consensus is that Brady will indeed go into the broadcast booth this September.

In pretty much any situation ever, this would be nothing but an overwhelming positive development. While there's no doubt it will be good for Fox to be in business with Brady and have the greatest quarterback of all time on its air every week, this isn't exactly a headache-free situation.

Olsen has put Fox in quite the pickle. He’s hasn’t been good in his two-year stint as the network’s lead analyst. He’s been outstanding. And he’s been universally touted as being outstanding, which is a significant accomplishment in this day and age where we just love to bash, bash, bash.

Many of you reading this are probably thinking, “The announcers don’t impact ratings. People will watch the games no matter who is calling them. So this isn’t a big deal.”

You’d be right in thinking the announcers don’t impact ratings. You’d be wrong, though, if you think executives and people working at networks aren’t affected by announcers continually getting hammered by the public.

The issue for Olsen and Fox is that there is probably just one human being on Earth who could cause Olsen to get demoted, and it’s Brady.

But will Fox actually go through with its plan?

This is where I’m going to be a terrible columnist and do the opposite of what I’m supposed to do. I should come out with some definitive take and declare that there is only one move Fox should make. But I honestly have no idea what Fox should do or will do.

I could see Fox going through with its plan because Burkhardt-Brady will be a must-watch booth every week, especially in early weeks when people want to see how Brady will perform as a television analyst.

I could see Fox keeping Burkhardt-Olsen intact and adding Brady to make it a three-man booth. This might not make sense financially because Brady is getting paid a ton and if Olsen remains a No. 1 guy, he gets a hefty paycheck. But this might be Fox’s best bet so they avoid the backlash of demoting Olsen. It would also take the target off Brady’s back because, whether Brady turns out to be a great analyst, people are going to automatically be down on Brady over the perception that he bumped Olsen.

Tony Romo signed a 10-year deal with CBS in 2020. ESPN isn’t breaking up the Joe Buck–Troy Aikman combo. Kirk Herbstreit has one year left on his Amazon deal, but I’m not sure being the lead Amazon analyst is a better gig than being Fox’s No. 2 analyst. Although, Amazon has the money to make Olsen as lucrative an offer as anyone. 

Cris Collinsworth reportedly has a deal with NBC through 2025. Could Olsen work a year on Fox's No. 2 crew and then make the jump to Sunday Night Football? If NBC bumped Al Michaels from that booth, it wouldn’t be shocking at all if they swapped Collinsworth for Olsen.

So while it would be extremely s---ty for Olsen to lose his role as Fox’s No. 1 analyst, it does appear his options are somewhat limited for now.

If I had to guess, I’d say as of today, Fox doesn’t even know what it’s going to do with Olsen next season. But Sunday could very well be the last time Burkhardt and Olsen work a game together.

During their appearance on last week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina, I asked them if they've spent any time during the postseason thinking that this could be it for them as a broadcast duo.

“We’ve been asked this question every single day since the beginning of last year, and I think—I’ll speak for me—if I thought like that, like, oh my gosh, like I would have been in the f---ing nut house by now,” said Burkhardt.

“I think we are going to do what we have always done and go out and enjoy the heck out of it, have a great time and let the cards fall where they may. I can’t imagine doing it any other way or thinking any other way than that.” 

Olsen had a lot more to say.

“Obviously for me being directly impacted one way or another, to Kevin’s point, this is nothing new,” said Olsen. “This is nothing new in this career path, and it was nothing new when I was a player. I had been tried to be replaced and been replaced and traded and cut, whatever, and all in between. It’s the life we all sign up for. We’re all big boys. We all understand that all aspects related to the NFL is a very competitive environment that a lot of people want to get involved in. It’s fun, it’s a lucrative business, it’s all of those things. 

“So when everything went down and we knew that Kevin and I were going to start to call the slate of games last year, which obviously was going to end in a Super Bowl, there was no bigger magnifying glass on two guys in the booth than us. There was no story covered more on a week-to-week basis and then it picked up when it went to the playoffs. How are they going to handle the big moments in the playoffs? This is different than 1 o’clock on Sunday. And then the two-week lead-up was, How are these guys going to call the Super Bowl? Neither one of these guys has ever called the Super Bowl.

“And all we have ever done is exactly what Kevin just said; we just keep calling our game. We just keep doing the game the way we see it, the way we talk about it and the way that we find maybe is a little bit different, new, we point out things that maybe not everyone’s pointing out, we dive into subjects of the game that are a little more new-age and a little more analytics, just little sprinkles of stuff that Kevin and I find interesting. And we think now after doing it for two years with this team, we feel like a lot of people find it interesting. And we feel like a lot of other people now are starting to talk about those things when maybe they hadn’t always.

“So we’re gonna keep doing us, whatever team I’m on next year, whatever my future holds, wherever I am, so be it. Obviously I’m on the record about how much I respect Tom. I understand the situation. He’s the greatest football player of all time. I get it. I understand what we all signed up for, but it is not going to alter one thing we do, and it does not take away one thing from what we’ve done. All we’ve done is continue to deliver and the ratings and all metrics show it.”

2. Obviously, this is FAR from the important issues surrounding the lawsuit that came out Thursday that says Vince McMahon committed sexual assault and sex trafficking, but for the purposes of sports media (again, not important here), I’m going to throw this out there.

Netflix has a McMahon documentary coming out soon. Back in October, Bill Simmons, who is an executive producer on the doc, told me on SI Media With Jimmy Traina, that it would come out in the early part of 2024.

“Oh yeah, it’s f---ing awesome,” Simmons said of the project. “I think it’s going to be the first part of next year.” 

It will be interesting to see how the new accusations against McMahon will affect the release of the Netflix documentary, whether Netflix will update it with the allegations against McMahon or release it as is, which would seem tough to do.

3. As far as athlete-gambling stories go, this one involving former LSU player Kayshon Boutte is as wild as it gets. The dude was absolutely prolific.

4. We had an excellent Jeopardy! sports moment Thursday involving a Cubs fan and Albert Pujols.

5. Credit to New York radio host Michael Kay for not being afraid to bite the hand that feeds him.

Kay’s show airs on ESPN New York, but that didn’t stop him from being honest about how ESPN screwed itself by parting ways with Jeff Van Gundy for Doc Rivers.

6. A brand-new SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped Thursday, and it features an outstanding conversation with Good Morning Football host Kyle Brandt.

Brandt talks about the strong ratings for GMFB, how he feels about the NFL season winding down, the AFC and NFL championship games, the great story of the Lions and Jared Goff, what a Super Bowl in Las Vegas means for people in sports media, why he doesn’t love talking about the Cowboys, why he avoids the social media game, his unique segment for CBS’s NFL Today, his experience on Wheel of Fortune and much more.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we talk about Doc Rivers leaving ESPN after the network fired Jeff Van Gundy, CBS’s upcoming special on the NFL Today, the best potato chips and more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: The Royal Rumble takes place this Saturday, so I need to post the all-time greatest Royal Rumble moment.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.