In 22 years of playing football, Tom Brady has made $300 million.
Brady just signed a 10-year contract with Fox Sports to be their lead NFL analyst upon his retirement from football. He’ll make $375 million.
That’s quite a disparity even when accounting for inflation and gas prices.
Fox is wasting its money, as are CBS with Tony Romo (10 years, $180 million) and ESPN with Troy Aikman (five years, $90 million). It’s a battle for critical acclaim, and no small amount of measuring manhood, but it doesn’t affect viewership one bit.
Nobody has turned on a football game because of the announcers since Howard Cosell left Monday Night Football at the end of the 1983 season. Cosell was the last announcer to move the needle because he was honest, critical and wasn’t “Yay, football!”
That’s the era we find ourselves in: “Yay, football!” It’s a master Romo and Aikman gladly serve, and Brady will, too.
Fox’s money would be better spent on Pat McAfee.
There’s an element of “Yay, football!” to McAfee, but sometimes he just can’t help himself. He’s charismatic and energetic. He engages bro culture. Regrettably, that seems to be where the money is. He’s great on radio and WWE Smackdown. He’d be electric doing football analysis.
I say that slightly grudgingly. McAfee eclipsed both my radio and wrestling careers inside of a couple months.
Put the same football game on two networks simultaneously. Have Brady do commentary on one network, McAfee on the other.
More people would watch McAfee. More people would talk about McAfee. It wouldn’t be close.
