Fox Sports had the perfect opportunity to showcase Tom Brady on Saturday, a day ahead of his NFL broadcasting debut, and the network did just that.
At halftime of Texas’ win over Michigan, Fox’s lead college football analyst, Joel Klatt, interviewed Brady, who was in Cleveland preparing to call Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys-Cleveland Browns game.
“We’re sitting here about 27 hours away from your debut,” Klatt told Brady. “What are your emotions like, getting ready for tomorrow and your debut on Fox?”
“Well, obviously super excited,” Brady said. “There’s a little anxiousness obviously, there’s been a lot of preparation that’s gone into it from a lot of people, and it’s been a couple-of-year journey.
“But I think the thing that’s most exciting for me is getting back to NFL football, being up here in the booth. I’ve got the best partner with Kevin (Burkhardt), Erin (Andrews) down on the field with Tom Rinaldi, we’ve got a great group, there’s so many talented people that I get to work with … and I get to cover a sport that I absolutely love.”
Brady went on to give a quick breakdown of quarterbacks Dak Prescott and QB Deshaun Watson ahead of their matchup. Klatt also asked him, as a quarterback, how he would attack Cowboys edge-rushing star Micah Parsons and his Browns counterpart, Myles Garrett.
“There’s no way to attack those guys. Those guys attack you,” Brady said. Even if Klatt had told Brady his questions in advance — and in an informal situation like this, that would be perfectly fine — that’s a nice one-liner. If Brady came up with that on the fly, that’s even more impressive.
Brady also talked about the unique challenges Week 1 always poses for teams.
“There’s scheme changes, there’s player changes, nobody quite knows how it’s going to go,” Brady said. “And that’s why we all tune in to watch. We want to see what’s a team going to be like. Every team’s very hopeful this time of year. The reality is, they’re all starting from … a level playing field, they’re trying to work their way up and become one of the most talented teams in the league.
“None of them have proved it yet, they’ve all got to go out there and earn it, and that’s a hard thing to do in the NFL.”
Klatt then asked the legendary QB if he’d undergone any rookie “hazing” from his colleagues.
“They’ve been too good to me,” Brady said. “I’m kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. … they’ve been absolutely unbelievable.”
In a lot of ways, I am the rookie I want to come in here and I want to earn it. … I want to provide a little bit of insight for everybody to make everyone understand the game a little bit deeper, and I’m really excited about that.”
Klatt concluded the interview with an interesting observation about football analysts.
“Listen, this is an analyst-driven sport,” Klatt said. “We all watch the game through the analyst’s eyes, and that’s why I, and the rest of America, is excited about getting you in the booth, so we can watch football through your eyes.”
Earlier in the game, Fox aired a promotional video showing Brady answering doubts about why he is entering broadcasting.