Greg Olsen‘s demotion is now official, as Fox Sports has announced its depth chart for the coming NFL season.
Fox Sports named its NFL broadcast teams on Tuesday, with the previously reported demotion of Greg Olsen in favor of Tom Brady now official. Olsen will pair with play-by-play voice Joe Davis and sideline reporter Pam Oliver on the network’s “B” team, returning to a role he held alongside Kevin Burkhardt in 2021. (He joins Oliver in being demoted to the “B” team after years on the lead broadcast.)
Olsen and Burkhardt ascended to the lead team in 2022, filling a vacancy created by the sudden departures of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to ESPN. Yet even before Olsen took the lead role, FOX signed Brady to a blockbuster $375 million deal set to begin whenever he chose to retire. It was long understood that Brady’s eventual arrival could mark the end of Olsen’s time on the lead team, but his well-regarded performance in two seasons as the network’s lead analyst — and continued doubts about whether Brady would ever actually go into television — raised the possibility of a longer-term future.
For the time being, Olsen occupies a rare role in sports television as a lead analyst demoted to a lesser role. Phil Simms of CBS was the previous Super Bowl analyst to be bumped from his position, losing his spot alongside Jim Nantz to another newcomer — Tony Romo — in 2017.
Outside of Simms, one would have to go back to NBC’s Bob Trumpy to find a Super Bowl analyst who was demoted to a lesser role on the same network. Trumpy called back-to-back Super Bowl games for NBC alongside Dick Enberg, but was demoted in favor of an analyst pairing of Simms and Paul Maguire.
As for the other “Big Four” sports, Tom Verducci went from a World Series analyst on FOX in 2014 and 2015 to serving as a sideline reporter in subsequent years. Hubie Brown called the 2005 and 2006 NBA Finals for ABC before moving down the depth chart (though he continued calling the Finals on ESPN Radio for several years). There are several earlier examples the further one goes back, including Bill Walton, Matt Guokas and Tom Heinsohn.
Though the move was expected, for Olsen the demotion represents a detour on what has otherwise been a linear progression upward. Olsen served as a guest analyst for both FOX and ESPN during his playing career, even calling games for the latter during bye weeks. Entering just his fourth full season in broadcasting, he has already won two Sports Emmys and called a Super Bowl.
Olsen replaces Daryl Johnston on the “B” team, who will now work with Kevin Kugler and Laura Okmin. Kugler’s old partner Mark Sanchez will now work with Adam Amin and Kristina Pink, while Amin’s old partner Mark Schlereth will now work with Chris Myers and Jen Hale. Myers’ partner Robert Smith is off the depth chart. All of these changes were first reported in June by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
The one booth returning intact is the pairing of Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma, who will be joined by sideline reporter Megan Olivi in the wake of Shannon Spake’s departure.
