Tom Brady now has Emmy-sized shoes to fill.
Greg Olsen, who will be demoted from Fox’s lead NFL broadcasting team for Brady this fall, won the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Personality/Event Analyst on Tuesday.
Awkward, much?
“I think there’s a lot of people wondering what I’m going to say right now,” Olsen said during his acceptance speech, invoking laughter. “Coming into tonight, people asked me, they say, ‘What’s your biggest threat to your future in the business?’ And everyone’s like, ‘Oh, Brady and this,’ and I think it’s Andy from ‘Toy Story.’ If he gets in, (Cris) Collinsworth, (Troy) Aikman, we’re dead. But I really appreciate it.”
As his new award confirmed, Olsen established himself in a short time as a top sports analyst while calling Fox’s premier NFL games alongside Kevin Burkhardt.
His 14 years of playing experience shine through his broadcasts, including during a Super Bowl 2023 when the Chiefs beat the Eagles.
But he’s not Brady. And Fox isn’t paying him $375 million over 10 years.
So, this fall, it will be Brady analyzing the game alongside Burkhart, while Olsen takes the reins of the No. 2 team with Joe Davis.
Adding insult to the demotion, The Post previously reported Olsen’s salary will shrink from $10 million to $3 million now that he’s on the “B” team.
Olsen, to his credit, is handling the situation with dignity, even helping Brady.
“He was just kind of picking my brain about the prep and the industry and what to expect and whatnot,” Olsen told USA Today earlier this month. “So, I don’t know. Every guy has their own journey in sports broadcasting. I think everyone thinks it’s easy.
“I think everyone thinks getting up there and calling a live football game for three hours off the cuff, and being able to get in, get out, deal with the flow of the game, the players, the schemes, the terminology — there’s a lot going on during a game, and I think some guys really transition to it well and take to it pretty quickly. And other guys haven’t. We’ve seen a mixed bag of results over the last couple of years.”
Olsen, a former NFL tight end, indicated in his speech Monday that he’s still passionate about what he does, even if he no longer will be calling the top games of the week.
“This is super cool. I don’t know what the future holds, all I know is I love talking football, I love talking ball, I love studying it, I love seeing where the game is going,” Olsen said. “Wherever that takes me, whatever level it is, I’m more committed to the game of football now.”
