Former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady spent the 2023 NFL season preparing for his new job as a Fox Sports broadcaster.
Brady and play-by-play partner Kevin Burkhardt called 17 games last season as practice for their debut as a broadcasting duo this fall, Michael McCarthy reported for Front Office Sports.
The pair are set to make their first television appearance on Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys take on the Cleveland Browns in the 2024 season opener.
The season will kick off Brady's 10-year, $375 million deal with the network, which was announced by Fox Sports in 2022.
Fox initially announced that Brady would join the network "immediately following his playing career," but the seven-time Super Bowl champion spent the 2023 season away from the booth following his final retirement from the NFL that January.
"I want to be great at what I do," Brady told Colin Cowherd of FOX Sports 1's The Herd in February 2023 (h/t NFL.com's Eric Edholm.) "I was talking even last week with the people at FOX Sports, and the leadership there allowing me to start my opportunity in the fall of 2024 is something that's great for me.
"So, (I'll) take some time to really learn, become great at what I want to do, become great at thinking about the opportunity and make sure I don't rush into anything."
That preparation involved the full season of practice games, as well as studying other analysts including CBS' Tony Romo, ESPN's Troy Aikman and NBC's Cris Collinsworth, Andrew Marchand reported for The Athletic.
In January, Brady observed Collinsworth during production by joining him and play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico in the NBC booth, according to Marchand.
Marchand wrote that Brady has additionally been "calling his new partners at random times to talk for an hour about how to improve and then, during practices, being receptive to real-time coaching."
Brady will also bring to the booth tools from his own 23-year career, including call sheets and scouting reports from every NFL game he played, according to the NFL.
Due to Brady's bid to hold a stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, the NFL has limited his access to teams during his broadcasting career. The restrictions mean Brady cannot attend "in-person or online broadcast production meetings" or "access team facilities, players or coaches," Mark Anderson and Rob Maaddi reported for the Associated Press.
As Marchand noted, however, Brady can still speak with coaches and players on the phone and receive information from his partners.
Brady will look to overcome these limitations and put his practice into effect on Sunday as he prepares to call what he said he expects to be a "defensive game" between the Cowboys and Browns.
