Tom Brady has closed the book on his second season as an NFL analyst with FOX, and the former quarterback believes the difference from year one is clear, both on screen and in his own mindset.
Two seasons into a $375 million, 10-year deal, Brady sounded reflective rather than defensive when discussing his work behind the microphone.
After a debut year that felt uneven, he emerged from this season more relaxed, more natural, and more comfortable letting the game come to him instead of forcing it.
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Speaking on Seattle Sports, Brady explained how stepping away from the physical demands of playing has reshaped his appreciation for the sport.
“Now I’m happy I get to see it from the 50-yard line in a suite and not take those hits anymore, but also appreciate, um, you know, how good these teams are and how good the football environments are,” Brady said.
That separation, he noted, has allowed him to experience football in a way he never could as a player. Without the constant pressure of performance, he has found himself watching with a broader lens, noticing effort, discipline, and atmosphere more than ever before.
“You get to see things so much more, and I am so much more of a fan now than I’ve ever been,” Brady added. “And that’s what the football season is all about.”
Learning to broadcast like a quarterback
The calmer environment of the booth has also forced Brady to rethink how he prepares. Earlier this week, he acknowledged that many of his early struggles were self-inflicted. Used to exhaustive preparation as a quarterback, he initially approached broadcasting the same way, and it backfired.
“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.
Brady described that note-heavy approach as overwhelming, admitting it slowed his reactions and muted the instincts that defined his playing career. The real breakthrough came when he stopped trying to sound like a traditional broadcaster and started trusting his football reads again.
“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 noted. “As opposed to, ‘Let me try to prepare as a broadcaster.'”
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