Tom Brady’s Wild-Card Clinic Showed He’s Made the Jump

The truth shall set you free. Tom Brady’s willingness to tell some hard truths about quarterback play has propelled his TV rise this year.

Tom Terrific’s rookie season as Fox Sports’s No. 1 NFL broadcaster was rocky at best. Sure, he called the most-watched NFL game in TV history: Fox’s telecast of the Eagles’ win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, which averaged 127.7 million viewers. But Brady was robotic and awkward. He seemed completely averse to criticizing current quarterbacks, not to mention coaches and refs.

That’s a common mistake by rookie sportscasters. They can’t give up their membership in the Shield, and come off hesitant and awkward in the booth. So they pull their punches. 

The former sixth-round draft pick by the Patriots is nothing if not a quick learner. Brady’s sophomore season on the air with Fox’s No. 1 NFL crew of Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews, and Tom Rinaldi has been a different story.

On Sunday, Brady was justifiably praised for his precise, focused call of the 49ers’ 23–19 wild-card win. Yes, he was still positive. But he was more willing to criticize the play of reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts and the defending champion Eagles. Who better to do that than a seven-time Super Bowl winner who holds virtually every NFL passing record?

During the second half, for example, Brady questioned Hurts’s decision to throw to third-string Jahan Dotson instead of his two star receivers: A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. The pass fell incomplete. Philadelphia squandered yet another offensive opportunity.

“I don’t know what [Hurts] is possibly seeing here,” said Brady. “If I have two Pro Bowl–caliber wide receivers to one side … I’m going to give them a shot at getting the ball. That’s what you’re paying them for.”

With the game on the line, I thought Brady’s best moment came when he ripped an “antsy” Hurts for running away from “perfect” pocket protection. By rolling to his right, Hurts effectively limited his throwing options to half the field. 

On his eponymous Ringer podcast, Bill Simmons said it was “riveting” TV to watch Brady dissect Hurts’s performance.

“Brady was so disappointed. We’ve heard that, too, with [CBS’s Tony] Romo sometimes when a quarterback is really bad. It’s almost like the Mafia. You don’t want to go against somebody who’s a made man. The quarterbacks are the made men. So you can only go so far. But I thought Brady was disgusted by Hurts,” Simmons said.

Added former ESPN anchor Stan Verrett on X/Twitter: “Brady is the best tv analyst now, already. He’s taken over the top spot.”

Coming out of college at Michigan, Brady didn’t have the résumé of other blue-chip prospects. But he was always the best between the ears. It’s fascinating when he brings us into his world and shows some of the simple mechanical tricks that make the difference between winning and losing.

During Sunday’s telecast from a windy Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, social media loved Brady’s impromptu demonstration of how to throw a football through the wind. It all depends on the QB’s grip, he said. If the point of the ball is up, the pass will sail high. Grip it another way, and the pass bores through the wind. 

This is why Fox is paying Brady an eye-popping $37.5 million a year. The longtime Pats QB’s old backup Brian Hoyer noted on Twitter: “This was the stuff I got to learn about every single day for the first 4 years of my career. No detail was too small, awesome he gets to share his knowledge with viewers each week.”

Brady has put it all together this season. As legendary Fox producer Richie Zyontz previously told Ryan Glasspiegel: “Tom has figured out the ins and outs of television that he was struggling with last year, just being new at it. It’s a different language. He sees so much and TV forces you to speak about things in a very condensed period of time.” 

Brady doesn’t have the ebullience of Romo or the TV experience of NBC’s Cris Collinsworth and ESPN’s Troy Aikman. What he does have is a unique skill set as the greatest quarterback and winner in NFL history. If Brady keeps progressing he could challenge Aikman for the title of TV’s best NFL game analyst.