SI

Tom Brady’s Fox Colleague: ‘No One Can Question How Hard He’s Working’

Tom Rinaldi reveals what it’s like to work with the former quarterback.

Jimmy Traina

Tom Brady will call the Super Bowl for Fox this season.
Tom Brady will call the Super Bowl for Fox this season. / Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

1. The biggest media story of the 2024 NFL season has been Tom Brady taking over for Greg Olsen as Fox’s lead analyst, alongside Kevin Burkhardt.

Reviews thus far on Brady’s debut season have been mixed. It’s clear he’s still finding his way, which would make sense since he’s only called a total of 13 games in his broadcasting career.

However, when you have a $375 million contract, people aren’t keen on giving you leeway. They want you to be great right away. Especially when you replace someone who was great.

So, how does Brady feel about his first season as an NFL analyst? What does he think he’s done well? What would he like to improve? Is he enjoying the job? Is it harder than he thought? Does he feel totally comfortable?

We have no idea. Brady hasn’t done any in-depth interviews about broadcasting during the season. His colleagues have also been mum about working with Brady. Until now.

Tom Rinaldi, who works on the crew with Brady, Burkhardt and Erin Andrews, appeared on Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s SiriusXM show last Wednesday to promote something, but Russo made sure to get in a few Brady questions, giving us our first insight on what Brady’s freshman season with Fox has been like.

“He’s a sensational teammate. It’s phenomenal to be on the crew with him,” Rinaldi said “His earnestness, his effort, his humility, his curiosity, it’s been amazing. He is into it. His prep is phenomenal. You should see the dozens of pages of notes every week that he sends to our crew. No one can question how hard he’s working at it.”

And, unlike on the field in his playing career, the former quarterback is human after all. Rinaldi said Brady has was nervous before his first time in the booth.

“Absolutely. Who wouldn’t be?,” Rinaldi said. “And I think Tom owned that and that’s human and that endeared him even more to the crew to say that when he heard that 10 count, yeah, his heart started beating hard. And I think that’s great. That’s a sign of how much you invested and how much you care.”

But does Brady goes out with the crew? “Yes, 100%. We have crew dinners, it involves us that are on air, it involves people who are off air. One thing I’ll tell you, with how clean Tom eats, you think twice about reaching for the extra piece of bread and butter and you think twice about that dessert cart.”

“Brady has said, ‘I don’t care what you eat. I care what I eat. Eat what you want.’ But when he’s there and that example is there, believe me, it affects you in your choices.”

Did Brady show any regret about doing the Netflix roast?

“I didn’t discuss with him at all, so I don’t know what his feelings are on it,” Rinaldi said. “But obviously, millions upon millions of people watched it, which is just an indication that everything he says, everywhere he goes, people pay attention to Tom Brady. He’s the GOAT.”

Two thoughts about what Rinaldi said about Brady. One, if I was on that crew, I’m definitely skipping the dinners with Brady. Despite what he says, he’d be judging me so hard while I’m stuffing carbs and red meat down my throat.

Two, if I’m Fox, I would tell Brady to skip the dozens of pages of notes and the extensive prep and just try to be more natural on the air. Don’t rely on the notes, just be yourself.

2. Here’s something the NFL needs to fix about these types of plays. After Azeez Al-Shaair annihilated Trevor Lawrence, a bunch of livid Jaguars players came to their quarterback’s defense and got rough with some Texans players. This led to a scuffle and a bunch of flags.

The result ended up being a bunch of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties that offset.

This meant that the Texans were not punished at all for Al-Shaair’s late hit. Lawrence’s run came on a a second-and-7 play. The next play was a third-and-1 for Jacksonville.

Houston wasn’t penalized at all. That’s B.S.

3. The Giants-Cowboys game on Thanksgiving showed that some fans aren’t into watching a game with two teams that stink and are starting backup quarterbacks.

Fox averaged 38.5 million for the game, making it the most-watched game of the 2024 season. However, the game was down from the 41.4 million that the Commanders and Cowboys generated on Thanksgiving last season and the 42 million that the Giants and Cowboys drew on Thanksgiving in 2022.

Meanwhile, 26.6 million people tuned into NBC Thanksgiving night for the Dolphins-Packers game that was over at halftime.

4. No NFL player had a more real press conference on Sunday than Steelers running back Najee Harris.

5. Tweeted this on Sept. 30.

So I’d like to thank Amari Cooper and Josh Allen for doing this last night. Need more of this.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt.

Brandt talks about GMFB’s move from New York to California this season, whether he was shocked when he got the news about the show’s new home and how he feels about doing the show remotely about 90% of the time.

Brandt also explains how his vignettes for CBS’s NFL Today come about, his process for writing his own scripts and how he came up with a piece to spoof the New York Jets by using the intervention scene from The Sopranos on GMFB.

Brandt also talks about which team he’d like to see win the Super Bowl this season, the popularity of his “Angry Runs” segment and seeing people wearing his T-shirt, and his philosophy for doing  podcasts.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York, joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we talked about Sal’s big Christmas tree dilemma and read Apple reviews for SI Media With Jimmy Traina that came in during November.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

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

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I had this situation happen to me over the weekend, so I had to post this today. Tip coordination is a must.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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