In booth, Brady has much to learn but much promise to build on

It is sort of endearing that the man whom many consider to be the greatest NFL player ever and who has a 10-year, $375 million contract to talk about football games came across as nervous to open his Fox broadcasting career.

Tom Brady, 47, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, sounded like a rookie out of the gate Sunday. His syntax was stilted. His interesting thoughts were limited. It was a bit awkward.

During the Dallas Cowboys’ blowout of the Cleveland Browns, Fox smartly showed Brady on camera a few times — if you land a star like Brady, you show him — but he missed some easy chances to display the humor and personality that we have been told were hidden by his coach with the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick. (Belichick made a strong debut Monday as a permanent guest on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football With Peyton and Eli.”)

When lead announcer Kevin Burkhardt brought viewers into the booth in the first half, Brady tried to accentuate his team-first mentality by putting out a fist to bump with officiating analyst Mike Pereira. Pereira was looking away.

Brady kept his fist out, and Pereira finally got to him, but it was apropos for Brady’s debut: The timing was a bit off.

Brady eventually settled down and showed flashes. In the second quarter, he explained “breather plays,” which are designed to give quarterbacks a break. In this case, the play was giving Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott a respite from contending with Browns defensive lineman Myles Garrett by rolling out and moving away from the rush.

In garbage time, with the Cowboys up big, Brady displayed some charisma and passion, seemingly referring to Belichick, after an Erin Andrews report, by saying, “I played for a coach that didn’t mind cussing his players out.” He then sincerely went into why this was a good thing, letting his competitive, do-it-the-right-way personality shine.

While in today’s social media environment it can feel as if a person has five seconds to make a first impression, in reality, Fox and Brady just need Brady to build during the season so he is at his best when the playoffs and Super Bowl arrive.

As a player, that was his time. It is similar in broadcasting, especially when your network has the Super Bowl.

Fox Sports averaged 23.8 million viewers for Sunday’s game. On Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9, in New Orleans, more than 100 million people will be expected to watch.

If the growth Brady showed from the first to the fourth quarter continues, he should be fine. Brady gives Fox a lot to work with.

Fox Sports has shown it can develop an analyst from the field to the Super Bowl booth. Burkhardt and Greg Olsen called the big game two years ago and did it well.

Olsen was a rookie No. 1 that year, though he had the advantage of a full season with Burkhardt before his promotion.

Olsen, who was demoted to Fox’s No. 2 team to make room for Brady, with a pay reduction from about $10 million to about $3 million a year, worked the Pittsburgh Steelers’ win against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and delivered a master class on all angles, preceding Brady’s first act.

After agreeing to join Fox, Brady played one more season, retired, took a gap year and, from all accounts, worked really hard preparing for Sunday. In the NFL preseason, he called 2 1/2 games as a live rehearsal.

In the weeks before the opening game, Fox Sports tried to temper the expectations for Brady by limiting the pregame chatter, but his producers’ big message, according to sources, was for Brady to be himself. It is not as easy as it may seem in fast-moving NFL action.

The mechanics of broadcasting an NFL game are about taking the complicated and making it simple. There is so much intricacy to a football game that coaches often say they need to review the game film so they can survey all 22 players on the field at the same time.

To be good as a game analyst, fans want to know inside information and analysis, but it must be explained, at a comprehensible level, and quickly, between plays. Brady, especially early, offered too much remedial player-speak, talking about how you do not want negative yards and that players have to bring juice.

He was feeling it out, but, of course, he was not given much grace on social media and elsewhere.

The NFL’s RedZone channel host, Scott Hanson, even got into the act, questioning Brady’s enthusiasm as the Cowboys considered a 71-yard field goal attempt to end the first half.

“Brady’s got to get more excited than that in the booth,” Hanson said.

That is actually not the issue with Brady. He showed enthusiasm. On Burkhardt’s touchdown calls, he could be heard saying, “Ohhh!”

On a fundamental level, this is not what you want as it prevents a clean call by the play-by-play person. But hearing one of the greatest players ever amped over a touchdown is kind of cool. Still, he needs to wait a few ticks. It is all about finding his voice in the booth.

At one point after he signed with Fox, Brady spoke about being like Johnny Miller, an acerbic golf analyst. He certainly was not like Miller on Day 1. The job is not just to be critical, but Brady failed to question much.

Since he retired, he has made some headline observations, including that rookie quarterbacks are not really ready to play during their first season.

Earlier Sunday, in Chicago, Caleb Williams, the No. 1 draft pick, threw for only 93 yards in his debut, but the Bears won.

Brady’s personal performance was sort of like Williams’. It was a win for Fox to have Brady broadcasting, even if his performance was not amazing.

There are a lot of weeks before the Super Bowl. Brady and Fox have plenty of time. That said, if he still sounds like a rookie come Feb. 9, he will not be the only nervous one.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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