Tom Brady needs to be 'genuine' and criticize today's NFL stars in Fox Sports role, says analyst and ex-MVP
The retired Cincinnati Bengals quarterback recently offered some tips to Brady as he prepares for his second season as a Fox Sports announcer. Most notably, Esiason told Awful Announcing that Brady needs to get more comfortable criticizing the game's current stars, regardless of whether they have relationships with the seven-time Super Bowl winner.
'Hopefully, in year two, [Tom Brady will] feel more comfortable and more confident and understand exactly what the viewers are looking for,' Esiason told Awful announcing.
Crediting Brady's comfort level with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, Esiason noted that Brady has traditionally refrained from any public criticism of NFL players or teams.
'Tom has always been careful, never really controversial, especially when it came to football,' Esiason said before referencing Brady's former Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick. 'Kind of followed the Bill Belichick way of talking about teams and things of that nature.
'And even meeting with Tom before games, he never really gave you much,' Esiason said. 'He was always guarded. I think what you try to do is become as genuine as you can in the broadcast booth. I don't necessarily know that anybody will be as genuine as the great John Madden was or Merlin Olsen was. Those were different times. There wasn't social media impacting everything that's going on. Not everybody's going to love you as a broadcaster. I learned that pretty early on.'
Brady isn't alone in his reluctance to offer criticism, Esiason said.
'I would also say most analysts these days are very careful,' he continued. 'They're not nearly as critical as some have been in the past.'
Now primarily a radio host, Esiason recalled one former teammate slamming his performance in the early 1990s.
'My former teammate Cris Collinsworth probably falls under that category because when he started in TV, he was covering a lot of my games,' Esiason said. 'I had a couple of bad games, and I remember him being pretty critical of the way I was playing.
'Richard Sandomir was a sports TV columnist [for The New York Times],' Esiason continued. 'Richard gave, I think, Cris five stars because he was able to criticize me, his former teammate. Cris was much more critical back when he first started.'
Esiason also acknowledged he may have had more experience by the time he made his way to the booth and CBS Sports' in-studio halftime show.
With the NFL helping to fund the now-defunct World Football League in the early 1990s, both Esiason, Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon and Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino were given the chance to analyze live games.
That opportunity helped prepare Esiason for analyzing the NFL, which led him to stints with ABC's Monday Night Football and CBS Sports.
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