WATCH: Patriots Legend Tom Brady Makes Fox Sports Debut

Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was still supporting a blue football team in his first appearance on Fox Sports' football coverage.
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Tom Brady is used to proving his doubters wrong. True to his arguable greatest-of-all-time form, he's even doing it in retirement.

Some prominent figures in football media doubted that the former New England Patriots quarterback would ever hold a microphone for Fox Sports despite inking a large deal with the network that was set to take effect upon his retirement. Brady's plan to take a year off before joining Fox only lent credence to those doubters and fueled speculation that he would return to NFL action for a 25th season.

For at least one day, however, Brady took Fox's airwaves on Saturday, namely during a pre-recorded segment during "Big Noon Kickoff," the network's premier college football package.

With "Big Noon Kickoff" debuting its fifth season with a highly anticipated opener between Colorado and TCU, Brady appeared in a video previewing the highly-anticipated 2023 college football campaign. Brady's pick for January's college football national champion is hardly a shock.

"Look guys, I hate to ruin this for everyone else, but this is Michigan's year!" Brady says in support of his alma mater in Ann Arbor. "We're coming off two, back-to-back Big Ten titles, two straight Ohio Stae beatdowns ... sorry Urban (referring to former Ohio State head coach and future Fox Sports co-worker Urban Meyer)."

"Coach (Jim) Harbaugh's got all his key pieces,' Brady continues. "He's got a blue-chip quarterback in J.J. McCarthy, a two-headed monster in the backfield (in running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards), and we've got a loaded defense. The winningest program in college football history is ready to go and make another national championship run."

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Brady's football story partly began at Michigan, where he played for four seasons before the Patriots drafted him with the 199th pick of the 2000 draft. The rest, of course, is literal history to the tune of six Super Bowl victories and countless franchise and national records set along the way.

Even if one could argue that Brady's appearance was more as a fan than it was as an analyst, it marks his first appearance on any kind of Fox Sports programming since officially walking away from the game in February. When his television deal was originally announced, Brady was expected to take over lead analyst duties in Fox's premier NFL booth alongside Kevin Burkhardt. A strong debut from the supposed interim man Greg Olsen only further complicated matters.

For at least one weekend, Michigan, fresh off consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff, fulfilled Brady's prophecy: ranked second in the debut polls, the Wolverines earned a 30-3 victory over East Carolina in its Ann Arbor-based opener. Michigan is without Harbaugh for each of its first three games, as the ninth-year head coach was dealt a self-imposed suspension for alleged recruiting violations. 

The Wolverines face UNLV on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS) and Bowling Green the week after before Harbaugh returns in time for the Big Ten conference play debut on Sept. 23 against Rutgers.


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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Geoff Magliocchetti