Brady’s Retirement Casts Shadow on Olsen In the Booth
Tom Brady’s second retirement means he will be stepping into the booth to call games for Fox this upcoming Fall. That means Greg Olsen could see a drop off from the big stage.
Greg Olsen quickly rose to stardom in the booth while calling games on Fox with his partner Kevin Burkhardt as they became Fox’s lead squad on NFL games. Olsen’s knowledge of the game and simplicity of breaking it down for viewers made him a fan favorite for many who listened.
Photo curtesy of outkick.com
Tom Brady retiring this week means he is available to start working in the booth for Fox under his $375 million contract. Brady will likely get the top spot for Fox with a contract and status like he has, but Greg Olsen’s performance this year puts the network in a tricky situation. Olsen has spoken about the situation earlier this year, saying it would ‘suck’ if Brady retired and he lost his spot.
Fox is in a tough spot, as they are paying Brady over $37.5 million/year, but also have Greg Olsen who got the attention of many for his performance this year. Some suspect Fox to work in a three-man booth like we sometimes see in basketball and have seen in football before. In this scenario, Burkhardt would stick with his role as the play-by-play announcer and both Brady and Olsen would be joining him in the booth as color commentators. This seems like a situation where everyone wins, Brady gets the big games that he’s being paid to do, and Olsen retains his spot at the top. The only issue is no one knows if the three-man booth would work. It could be a total success with two great football minds pairing with a fantastic play-by-play guy, or it could go horribly. Too many people in the booth could lead to people talking over each other, making for a tough listen for the viewers.
The only thing we do know is people loved Greg Olsen this year. He had a breakout year with Fox and now in a little over a week, he’ll be calling his first Super Bowl. Another thing we know is people are going to want to hear Brady in the booth and listen to him show how he sees the game. Fox has a really good,bad situation on their hands, and one that will be interesting to see how it pans out.
