Tom Brady's eventual move to the booth means he will earn more money for fewer Super Bowl appearances
- Tom Brady already has his next job lined up for when he eventually retires from the NFL.
- Brady is set to join the Fox Sports commentary booth alongside play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt, the network announced on Monday.
It's always advisable to have your next gig lined up before walking out the door of your current job, and Tom Brady is nothing if not responsible.
On Monday, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch announced on the network's earnings call that Brady had signed on to join the Fox Sports NFL commentary booth upon his retirement.
"Over the course of this long-term agreement, Tom will not only call our biggest NFL games with Kevin Burkhardt, but will also serve as an ambassador for us, particularly with respect to client and promotional initiatives," Murdoch said. "We are delighted that Tom has committed to joining the Fox team and wish him all the best during this upcoming season."
For his part, Brady seemed excited about the deal as well.
As Murdoch and Brady both indicated, Brady won't start in the booth until he officially leaves the NFL on his terms. Given that Brady already tried to retire once, only to be drawn back, there's no telling when that day will actually come. But Brady will be 45 at the start of the 2022 season, and he indicated to Complex magazine that he told his wife he wanted to "do this one more time."
When Brady finally does hang up his cleats, his presence will be a boon for Fox, which just lost its top commentary team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to ESPN.
After news of Brady's upcoming move broke, Andrew Marchand at the New York Post reported that Brady's deal with Fox was worth $375 million over 10 years, meaning the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback will become the highest-paid TV sports analyst ever — essentially doubling the annual salaries of Tony Romo and Troy Aikman, who both making north of $17 million per year to call games.
It also means Brady will earn more money for fewer Super Bowl appearances.
Brady has made more than $317 million over his 22 seasons in the NFL, but in just six of those years did his team pay him more than $17 million in cash. Throughout his career, mostly with the Patriots, Brady was rarely paid like the best quarterback in NFL history, explaining that given the nature of NFL finances, it benefited him on the field if he took a smaller paycheck.
"It's the salary cap — you can only spend so much," Brady told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in 2019. "The more one guy gets, it's less for others. For a competitive advantage standpoint, I like to get a lot of good players around me."
Fox Sports does not have a salary cap. So, in the booth, Tom Brady will finally be free to earn his true market value.
Ironically, Brady's move to a major network somehow means he will also be going to the Super Bowl less frequently. In his 22 playing seasons thus far, Brady has appeared in 10 Super Bowls, winning seven of them. Since joining the NFL, Brady has averaged one Super Bowl win every three years.
Given how the networks rotate control of the championship broadcast, which now includes ABC in addition to CBS, NBC, and Fox, Brady will be commentating on one out of every four Super Bowls that are played once he enters the booth.
Romo played for 14 seasons in the NFL, finishing with a career postseason record of 2-4. He had never reached the NFC Championship game, let alone the Super Bowl. He's already called two Super Bowls as an announcer, infinitely more than he ever played in.
For Brady, it might take 30 years for him to broadcast as many Super Bowls has he has won, and another decade on top of that before he's called more Super Bowls than he played in.
That said, dividing Brady's $317 million in career earnings by his 10 Super Bowl appearances as a player, one could say that Brady earned $31.7 million per appearance as a player. Applying similar logic to his new deal, Brady would be making $150 million between Super Bowls as an announcer.
He's known as the GOAT for a reason.