Fox Sports’ top NFL play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt does not give a damn about Tom Brady becoming his co-worker.
He had a fiery response to the newly retired QB getting set to come from the field to the both.
“The reality is other than being asked in every media interview that I have done, and I mean this on or off the record, I have not thought about Tom Brady as a broadcaster for 10 f–king seconds,” Burkhardt told Sports Business Journal. “I just felt like it was out of bounds for me to be doing this right now and living in the moment and then texting Tom on the side, like, ‘Can’t wait for you to come, buddy.’”
Brady reportedly signed a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox Sports in May.
Burkhardt and former tight end Greg Olsen have been Fox’s top NFL broadcasting team following the departures of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman for ESPN. Fans absolutely love them together. Their final game of the year comes on Sunday in Super Bowl 2023 between the Chiefs and Eagles.
The plan going forward is to pair Burkhardt with Brady, which would boot Olsen from the network’s No. 1 game booth.
“Every person on that top Fox crew is aware of the situation, of course. But they also have adopted a mantra that they want to make Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks and executive producer Brad Zager’s decision to switch from Olsen to Brady next season as difficult as possible,” John Ourand of Sports Business Journal wrote.
“We have no idea what’s going to happen, so we just want to enjoy this while we can,” Erin Andrews, Fox Sports’ veteran sideline reporter, remarked of the situation.
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Burkhardt previously made it known that he hadn’t thought about Brady’s monster deal and was solely focused on the Super Bowl with Olsen.
“Well, let’s put it this way: All the years of covering sports when you ask an athlete a question and then their answer is, ‘I’m really only focused on the next game’ — I never understood it until this year, because I truly have not thought about it, because I just can’t,” Burkhardt said.
“I am focused on the next game, which — oh, by the way — happens to be the biggest one of my career. That’s how I’ve handled it the whole way, and I sure as s–t ain’t gonna change now on the precipice of a Super Bowl.”
37-year-old Olsen understands the situation, but did admit that it would “suck” if Brady’s arrival ended his run with Burkhardt.
“We all know the reality,” Olsen said during an appearance on the “Waddle and Silvy” radio show on ESPN 1000 in Chicago last Tuesday. “I know what I signed up for this year. My goal — and I said this before the season even started — my goal was to try to do the best job that I could. Give people a fun listen. Give people maybe a little bit of a different perspective and insight into the game. Do the best job that I can.
“Listen, if Brady ends up retiring and coming, and decides, and that’s how everything unfolds, it sucks. But at the end of the day, I’m a big boy. I know what I signed up for. I took a chance on myself. I rolled the dice. Let’s see how it plays out.”
