Tom Brady’s broadcasting abilities as the lead NFL on Fox color analyst may not yet match his abilities on the football field just yet. But according to his former teammate Logan Ryan, it may not take Brady all that long to close the gap between him and some of his fellow color analysts around the NFL.
Jumping straight from the football field to a lead analyst role for a major network is something we have only seen from Brady and NFL on CBS lead color analyst Tony Romo. Despite Brady not being as well-received early on as Romo was for CBS, he did have some bright moments that showed that he may have promise as a broadcaster.
Logan Ryan similarly debuted as a game analyst for CBS this past season, calling both college football and NFL games in 2024. And in a recent discussion with Front Office Sports for their Portfolio Players series, Ryan shared some translatable qualities that both he and Brady have learned from their playing career that serve them in the broadcast booth.
“What you need to do on TV isn’t exactly what you need to be great at football,” Ryan said. “You have to be able to process in football and understand to have success. On TV, that is similar, but you gotta get it out much quicker and you gotta be entertaining, and you can’t… There’s a lot of rules to it.”
Ryan also discussed the distinct differences in Brady’s broadcasting journey compared to everyone else’s in the field. In particular, he singled out how Romo getting into broadcasting after being an above-average starter in the NFL, and Brady doing so while being perceived by most as the “GOAT,” bring vastly different expectations in the broadcast booth.
“What Tom is doing, it’s never been done,” added Ryan. “Having the GOAT of their sport commentate game to game. I don’t see Tiger Woods commentating the Masters. I don’t see Wayne Gretzky commentating hockey games week in and week out. I never saw Michael Jordan commentating 82 basketball games. We’ve never seen the greatest do that. We’ve seen guys do a halftime hit. You know, we might see Shaq and Chuck and those guys at halftime, but calling the games is a big leap because you’re up for so much scrutiny. You’re going to make a mistake in three hours of people listening to your voice.”
Tom Brady got to experience the grandest stage there is to offer for any broadcaster by calling Super Bowl LIX. And while there were some critics of his analysis in the game, Ryan believes that Brady will be able to use the game as a learning lesson in the future.
“I thought he got better throughout the year,” said Ryan. “I know everybody was blown away by his work ethic and just his personality. He’s a really good dude. So I think he got better. I enjoyed him doing the Super Bowl. And if I know Tom, I know he’s going to put the work in to improve.”
Only time will tell whether Ryan is right in his assessment that Brady will continue to improve. Drew Brees, a fellow elite-level quarterback in the NFL, failed to impress in his brief tenure as a broadcaster for NBC.
By all accounts, Tom Brady is at least putting in the work required to give broadcasting his best shot. So it will surely be interesting to see how he fares in the 2025 NFL season.