Tom Brady is preparing for his new role as the lead color commentator for Fox Sports’ NFL coverage this fall, and on Wednesday afternoon he made a great case for why so many football fans are looking forward to his addition to the booth.
Brady joined The Herd with Colin Cowherd to discuss his upcoming role with Fox and life as an NFL player. In an especially enlightening moment, Cowherd asked Brady if there was ever a moment where he felt like the mood around the Patriots was too tense from Bill Belichick’s demeanor the night before a game. The former quarterback’s answer showed just how prepared Belichick always had the Patriots.
“I think the answer would be no,” Brady said in response to whether or not the mood was ever too tense. “I think that’s actually where Bill was so great. No one saw him in those moments like we did. Saturday night we were so prepared and so focused, [that] we were the opposite of tight. We were always relaxed, because we had the answers to the test.”
Brady’s attention to detail is one of the many reasons he’s considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time, and his preparation the night before made Sunday’s easier for him throughout his career.
“We’d go through every single play on the call sheet. This is the play, this is the run. What is the one thing that can mess this run up? Oh, a safety blitz off the right side. OK, great. What do you want to do if that happens? So I’d walk to the line of scrimmage and that call was made. I’d break the huddle, I’d look to the line of scrimmage and say OK, the only problem I have on this play is if the safety is blitzing off the right side. And I would just look for it. Oh, and he only did it let’s say 5% of the time. Most coaches would just say, ‘Ah, just run the play, whatever. If they get lucky, and call it at the same time, one for them.’ And that’s not how I played, because that one play could mean everything. So I would say if there’s a 5% chance, it can happen! What should I do if it happens, so we’re all on the same page.”
The key to being on the same page as frequently as Brady’s teams were throughout his career? Continuity.
“That’s what continuity allowed us to do over a long period of time. That’s what the same coordinator, the similar group of core players could do, the same offensive line coach. ‘Oh yeah, we did that two years ago. I liked that solution, it worked great. That allowed us to win the game.’ You gain confidence in it. So that continuity we had with all of us allowed us to succeed in those little, small percentage chances that they did something or made a call that could beat what we were doing.”
If Brady gives even half as much detail in game coverage this fall that he did in this clip, he has a chance to make a great announcer. Wednesday’s television spot with Cowherd is proof of that.