Tom Brady completes his second Fox season with rave reviews as fans claim he’s ‘100 times better than Tony Romo’ after NFC Championship broadcast
Tom Brady finished his second season as an NFL analyst with a flourish on Sunday night, earning rave reviews for his performance in the NFC Championship game.
After a rocky debut campaign when he started his $375million, 10-year contract Brady has shown a vast improvement behind the microphone this time around.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion has earned plenty of praise throughout the season but may have saved his best work for the final game of the year.
With NBC broadcasting this year’s Super Bowl, Brady and play-by-play colleague Kevin Burkhardt bid farewell to fans until September with the Seattle Seahawks’ win over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC title game.
Once again, Brady showed his improvement and vast knowledge by calling another terrific game, just hours after Tony Romo delivered another underwhelming display on CBS’ coverage of the AFC Championship game.
His performance led to strong praise from fans watching on at home and they took to social media to sing his praises.
Tom Brady earned rave reviews for his performance in the NFC Championship game on FOX
One commented: ‘Tom Brady has grown into a really good broadcast. Love his enthusiasm for the game. There’s an urgency, and he’s gotten comfortable enough to use some humor.’
Another added: ‘They were phenomenal. Best crew in the business right now.’
A third posted: ‘Brady has improved drastically since even the midway point of this season.’
‘They are the best duo in football now. Great chemistry and bring the excitement that CBS doesn’t,’ wrote another satisfied viewer.
In a dig at Romo and his CBS colleague Jim Nantz, another fan added: ‘Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady are running circles around Jim Nantz and Tomy Romo on the broadcast today. Brady has gotten so much better this year and it shows.’
A sixth fan wrote: ‘They do a good job and look even better following Romo.’
Last week, Brady revealed the changes he made in a desperate quest to change his fortunes as a TV analyst.
Brady admitted that he would overload himself with countless sheets of notes that would hinder his natural actions.
‘I used to say, “All the stuff I prepared, I could read from start to finish in a three-hour broadcast, and I wouldn’t get through all the information,”‘ Brady told The Athletic.
Kevin Burkhardt, Brady, Tom Rinaldi and Erin Andrews pose before kickoff in Seattle on Sunday
Brady recently revealed the steps he’s taken to help him improve in the booth in year two
His reliance on his notes, which he called ‘TMI’ (too much information), meant Brady couldn’t react quickly and naturally to the action that was unfolding in front of him, limiting the insight viewers would be tuning in for.
This year, Brady said that he tried to approach broadcasting like a quarterback, changing his outlook on the job.
‘I started to transition this year into, “Let me do more of how I did it as a quarterback,” because that’s really where my comfort is,’ Brady said during his interview with The Atletic. ‘As opposed to, ‘Let me try to prepare as a broadcaster.”
Brady also made slight tweaks and changes in the booth to facilitate his partnership with co-commentator Kevin Burkhardt.
He had the telestrator moved from the outside of the booth to between him and Burkhardt to facilitate a more natural flow of conversation.
The move meant that the pair were no longer having to turn their backs on one another to view the monitor for replays.
Fox NFL producer Richie Zyontz also recently let it slip that Brady is in it for the long haul.
‘I think he’s long-term for it, for sure,’ Zyontz told Sports Business Journal about Brady.
‘You can’t predict the future and you can foresee unforeseen events. But I would say right now he’s committed to doing this as long as he can and he’s gotten damn good at it.’
