Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

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MGB01
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by MGB01 »

I'll take that as an 'I'm right' without saying that I'm right.

Feel free to tell me once again whoever got a bump (that would have to be longterm) from an announcer. Sure MNF, but that really only lasted until Don Meredith left for NBC (and thus wasn't there for that Reagan/Lennon segment) and all the sudden Howard Cosell wasn't quite so Cosell. In fact they sort of started phasing him out when Meredith came back three years later, and he effectively bombed his bridges on the way out.

Back to the front, that's like saying the XFL Championship Game would have had three or four million viewers if Buck and Aikman were doing it.
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johnnyangryfuzzball
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by johnnyangryfuzzball »

CFLfan_inPhilly wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 8:06 pm
MGB01 wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 8:43 pm
CFLfan_inPhilly wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 8:11 pm

If FOX announced a week ahead of time that Tom Brady would be doing his first game as analyst, Do you really think that people wouldn't tune in?

It could also potentially be the opening topic for all the sports-related talking heads on Monday.
And this has made the difference when? Hell, XFL1.0 had an active governor on one of their announce teams (and CBS had the First Lady of Kentucky on the NFL Today, in her second run, years before that).

Sure when Summerall/Madden went to FOX (and ABC/NBC for Madden after that), but they also front-loaded with games like Cowboys/Steelers and Niners/Chiefs (Joe Montana vs SF for the first and only time). They weren't loading up with Bucs/Falcons and Rams/Saints.

Realistically, any "topic" about Brady would probably be like Kordell Stewart and Doug Flutie on UFL games in 2010--"It's painfully obvious they're the best QBs on the field". Is any short-term hit for the USFL worth that?, you think the XFL's promotion was bad, you could also end up with a situation like when John Lennon and Ronald Reagan (as gov) were on MNF in Dec '74, anyone remember who played?

Oh stop. You just want to argue.
There would be no downside to it for the network or the league, only POTENTIAL upside.
He's right, though. There isn't really much of a potential upside. They hired Brady as an NFL analyst. The level of play drops quite a bit; this is not a league that's making runs at vet talent. So chances are, Brady would know next to nothing about the players he's supposed to be analyzing. That's why ESPN and Fox have relied so much on their lesser-known college analysts to provide analysis for their XFL and USFL games: they're in the position to do the research on lesser-known talent. It's simply a talent mismatch that wouldn't help Brady prepare for his main job, and a publicity stunt that probably wouldn't work (and could, depending on how that contract is worded, cost Fox millions of dollars). I mean, I doubt that SportsCenter is going to be jabbering about Brady's broadcast debut, especially after Fox treated their spring football property the XFL like it didn't exist for the past few months.

At least in the UFL, the QBs were mostly washed-up NFL vets whose names people recognized.
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by CFLfan_inPhilly »

Never mind. You guys are so right. Absolutely nobody would be curious to watch Tom Brady's first broadcast as analyst if it was in a USFL game. Silly me. Forget I even brought it up.
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johnnyangryfuzzball
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by johnnyangryfuzzball »

CFLfan_inPhilly wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 7:28 pm Never mind. You guys are so right. Absolutely nobody would be curious to watch Tom Brady's first broadcast as analyst if it was in a USFL game. Silly me. Forget I even brought it up.
Well, why would they be?

Brady's been on national TV as a player for over 20 years... and hasn't been particularly well-liked for 15 of them. The Super Bowls where Brady was a player, viewership kept dropping lower, and lower, and lower... and when Brady didn't make it this year, they popped right back up again.

So no, there isn't really anyone who's particularly excited to see Brady back on their football broadcasts, especially after all the grief he's given so many of their teams the past two decades.
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by MGB01 »

CFLfan_inPhilly wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 7:28 pm Never mind. You guys are so right. Absolutely nobody would be curious to watch Tom Brady's first broadcast as analyst if it was in a USFL game. Silly me. Forget I even brought it up.
Tell me what the goal here is. Kinda like Ricky Williams playing for the Argos in 2006, although even that was for a player, here we're talking an announcer--which btw you just acknowledged that it's Brady that would draw the viewers, not the league.

What happens when "been there, seen it" hits?
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by CFLfan_inPhilly »

I am agreeing with you guys. Why are you still arguing?

Having Tom Brady debut on a USFL broadcast would accomplish absolutely nothing, and any additional exposure that it might generate is downright unnecessary.

FOX would be much better off utilizing all that publicity for an NFL broadcast.
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johnnyangryfuzzball
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Re: Want big ratings, Fox? get Tom Brady involved

Post by johnnyangryfuzzball »

CFLfan_inPhilly wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:33 am I am agreeing with you guys. Why are you still arguing?

Having Tom Brady debut on a USFL broadcast would accomplish absolutely nothing, and any additional exposure that it might generate is downright unnecessary.

FOX would be much better off utilizing all that publicity for an NFL broadcast.
hard to.tell if it's sarcasm or serious.
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