GREG OLSEN MAKES BROADCASTING PROMISE TO TOM BRADY
Greg Olsen recently revealed that he's spoken with Tom Brady about broadcasting as Brady prepares to take Olsen's role as Fox's lead NFL analyst this coming season.
Olsen offered more information about that conversation during an appearance on the "Front Office Sports Today" podcast.
"Would I love to continue calling [on] that team? Of course, absolutely. Who wouldn't? But my respect for Tom and what he's accomplished and what he's done speaks for itself," Olsen said about being relegated to Fox's No. 2 announcing crew, as shared by Kameron Duncan of The Spun. "I've had a chance to talk with him, and I told him that I'm going to be as much of a resource as I can. Obviously, from doing this the last couple of years, maybe I have some insight that could help with his transition."
Brady and Fox agreed to a 10-year deal reportedly worth $375M back in 2022 before Olsen emerged as a two-time Sports Emmy winner. Per Joe Reedy of The Associated Press, Olsen was named Outstanding Emerging On-Air Talent last year and then won the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Personality/Event Analyst for his work during the 2023 season.
Olsen's salary reportedly will drop from $10M per season to $3M in his new role working alongside play-by-play broadcaster Joe Davis. Brady, meanwhile, will call games with lead play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt beginning with the Week 1 clash between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns on Sept. 8.
Olsen seems to be keeping his options beyond the 2023 campaign open.
"My hunger, my approach, my aspirations if anything have just gotten stronger," Olsen added during the podcast interview. "I haven't backed off that since day one, and I'm not going to. I'm going to continue to go out there and be as good as I can, help my crew and let them help me. We'll see where everything settles out over time."
It was reported earlier this week that one reason team owners haven't yet voted on Brady's purchase of a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders is that they don't want a part owner of a franchise having access to other clubs via standard pregame production meetings. On Thursday afternoon, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk said that it's fair for owners to possibly ask Brady "to pick a lane" and choose between being either a partial owner of the Raiders or a broadcaster.
For now, Olsen sounds ready to help Brady find success with Fox.
"I want to be a great resource at whatever level I can be, and he echoed the exact same sentiment," Olsen said about Brady, according to Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. "I look forward to working with him. I look forward to sharing the network with him. I look forward to competing against him, I’m sure, as he looks to compete against us and make a name for himself. I think all that healthy competition is really good."
Fox executives likely hope this "healthy competition" results in the network defeating CBS in weekly ratings battles from Week 1 through Week 18 of the upcoming season.
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