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A lot has changed over the past year in the world of football and two of the bigger stories involve former members of the New England Patriots. First, Tom Brady completed his first season as a broadcaster for Fox, and second, Bill Belichick made his return to coaching at the University of North Carolina.
Brady, who had many doubters going into the 2024 NFL season (and still has some following it), talked about that first year in the booth went with Joel Klatt this week.
What Tom Brady thought of his first year with Fox
“I had a great year. I had the best team um and I had so many teammates that helped me through that first year,” Brady said. “For me, I was like really going into the year and I thought I was prepared, because I had done a lot of research and I had a year to prepare and a lot of practice games. But there’s absolutely nothing that I did that could really prepare me for what I was about to endure. And there was a lot of growing pains through the year for me, just in terms of prep and, obviously, going on-air, and there’s things you messed up and there’s things that you make mistakes and probably a lot like being an NFL quarterback.”
“You know, you think, ‘Hey, I’m prepared,’ and I got it and I practice and then you know, you you go in a real game of your rookie year and you’re like, “Oh my
god, like that’s a lot different. It’s a lot faster. Where are my eyes? What am I doing?” And then, you know, it gets a little better in week two and a little
better in week three. And then sometimes you regress a little bit and sometimes you do things you really like that impress you and then sometimes you’re like, you forgot completely going into week nine, like, ‘How did I do that?’ or ‘What was I talking about?’ And then it’s just, you know, by the time I got to the Super Bowl, I was way more comfortable and it was just a really rewarding year.”
Brady also said one of the trickiest part of being a broadcaster is trying to figure out what the audience wants or expects.
“Some like a little teaching. Some like a little entertainment. Some like personal stories. Some you’re talking too much about yourself,” he said. “Depending on who you ask, you get a lot of feedback. And that’s, I think, a little bit of the confusing part.”
How is Bill Belichick going to do in college?
As far as Bill Belichick coaching at North Carolina this fall, Tom Brady admitted that he is “very interested” in seeing how that plays out.
“What they’re going to get is obviously the most prepared, the most hardworking coach that I’d ever been around,” he said. “If you go to that school, you will be prepared to play at the next level. He’s going to teach you the right fundamentals, the right techniques. He’s going to have a high expectation for you and you’re going to develop a lot. That’s what I know.
“I think the challenge for him is he’s dealing with a lot of probably underdeveloped players because he’s dealt with guys that are four, five, six years further along than what he’s normally had to deal with. So I think there’s probably a learning curve for him just, and this is me hypothesizing, it’s not, you know, I
don’t have much knowledge of it, but I’m sure it’s different coaching a 17 or 18 year-old than even a 22 or 23 year-old.”
Tom Brady also wondered how college players will be able to assimilate all of the information Bill Belichick is going to throw at them when they, unlike professionals, have other things going on in their lives besides football and don’t have as much time to devote to it.