“We were in LA doing a practice game, and it took us 40 minutes just to get down to the elevator just to the corner of the end zone.”
Tom Brady will officially commence his tenure as the lead analyst for the NFL on FOX in a highly anticipated Week 1 regular-season matchup on Sunday, Sept. 8 between the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys. Brady, who is a seven-time Super Bowl champion, three-time AP Most Valuable Player and 15-time Pro Bowl selection, is joining Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on the lead broadcast team under a 10-year contract worth a reported $375 million. Ahead of the first game, Brady has been speaking with industry contemporaries and practicing with his colleagues, recently on site at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles as the Los Angeles Rams faced the Dallas Cowboys.
Burkhardt recognized that he and his colleagues may need to adjust the routine as to when they go on the field, presumably because of the popularity of Brady. During a recent appearance on the Calm Down podcast with Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson, he explained what it was like to navigate alongside the gridiron with his new colleague.
“It is like a circus just going down,” Burkhardt said. “We were in LA doing a practice game, and it took us 40 minutes just to get down to the elevator just to the corner of the end zone. I had to take a [picture] of he and Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs on the middle of the field. It’s wild.”
Because of the sheer amount of people who wanted to greet Brady and have conversations, they were unable to speak to the quarterbacks in the game. In fact, Burkhardt remembered that it was 1:15 p.m. PST and they were still on the field for a game that was going to begin 15 minutes later. As a result, he needed to inform Brady that they needed to go upstairs to the broadcast booth.
“That is definitely a learning experience,” Burkhardt said. “We’re going to take a little more time to go down on the field earlier, but he actually enjoyed it.”
The FOX Sports lead broadcast team will call the Super Bowl LIX from New Orleans, La. at the end of the season, marking the second championship game Burkhardt will call as a play-by-play announcer. Throughout his time with the broadcast network, which began in 2013, he has called games alongside John Lynch, Charles Davis, Daryl Johnston and Greg Olsen. At the same time, he would also receive critiques from his analysts, including a salient lesson from Lynch in terms of not boxing an analyst in a corner to discuss something when they might have been considering another topic.
“What I love about [Olson] doing games is we’ll get into those key moments, and we’ll, let’s say 2-minute warning whatever and it’s a close game, and I see him and he’s kind of frothing at the mouth,” Burkhardt said. “He’s got so much to say, so he’ll grab me on the shoulder with his big paws and he’s like, ‘KB, we’ve got to talk about.’ I’m like, ‘I got you bud, I got you. I know exactly what you want to do,’ and so we get back and as soon as I can, I would set him up as quick as possible because he was so excited to break it down, and he broke those moments down so amazing.”
During the game itself, Burkhardt is working with his analyst and also hearing information from Andrews on the field level in real time. There are moments when she alerts the booth what is occurring in order to assist them in their observation of different aspects within the game.
“Erin is talking to us all the time and we’re talking to her and she’s listening to us and like, ‘Guys, just so you know, you were talking about this. This is going on [down] on the field,’ and we’re like, ‘Oh wow, interesting,’” Burkhardt explained, “and then our camera guys will go get it, and then I’m like, ‘Well Erin, you do it. I want you to describe it,’ so there’s all this banter kind of talking about storylines and things. You can’t see all of it by yourself – there’s so much going on.’”
“It’s not always the case to have someone like Kevin or Greg the last few years when you get a beautiful group like that, everyone works in harmony, and the same is said for the players on the field,” Thompson replied. “When teams function as a team instead of as a bunch of individuals, it’s an awesome thing to watch, and it’s to our benefit as viewers to hear from all of you guys.”
As Burkhardt has practiced alongside Brady, they have developed chemistry and familiarity ahead of kickoff in the regular season. Reflecting on the preparatory process, Burkhardt feels that things are going very well in honing their craft and building rapport. Burkhardt and Brady will work with Andrews and Rinaldi throughout the regular season and playoffs leading up to the conclusion of the year with the company presentation of Super Bowl LIX.
“Earlier in the year… we went to a commercial in one of our practices and I was like, ‘Hey TB, I know you don’t know me well yet, but is that cool? Can I tell you if something sucks or whatever?’ and he’s like, ‘Yes, please tell me. Coach me up,’” Burkhardt recalled. “I was like, ‘Alright, that’s pretty cool,’ so he just wants to be great, he wants to be better, and I think that’s been the really fun part.”
