Welcome back to “On the Air,” in which Sports Media Watch Podcast co-host Armand Broady will offer in-depth breakdowns of broadcasters, on-air performance and career journeys, plus chronicle broader trends in the industry.
The NFL’s Thanksgiving games draw tens of millions of television viewers each year. For some, the games provide little more than background noise in between helpings of turkey and dressing. For others, they mark the peak of the NFL season and the beginning of the playoff race.
For this columnist, the holiday presents an opportunity to examine the performance of two of the most prominent names in NFL broadcasting: Tom Brady and Tony Romo. Brady is preparing to call his second Thanksgiving broadcast for Fox, while Romo gears up to call the highly anticipated Chiefs-Cowboys game on CBS.
Brady, Fox’s $375 million man, is still a broadcasting novice. After a highly scrutinized rookie season, it was clear that he would need time to mature as a TV personality. But Brady has shown marked improvement in his sophomore campaign alongside boothmate Kevin Burkhardt and reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi.
On a recent episode of the “New Heights” podcast, Andrews praised her colleague’s growth.
“I think we were doing Tampa-Eagles Week 4 and I was sitting in my hotel room and they were playing last year’s Eagles-Bucs game,” Andrews recalled. “And I texted TB and I just said, ‘wow, listening to you in this game, which was your fourth game of the season versus now, it’s just night and day.'”
It’s hard to argue with Andrews’ assessment. From his on-camera opens to his dialogue with Burkhardt, Tom Brady is a more self-assured broadcaster. Earlier this season, Fox lead producer Richie Zyontz told Richard Deitsch of The Athletic that Brady needed to get better at finishing his thought to allow Burkhardt to pick up the play-by-play. Brady, while not perfect, has made progress in this area.
Meanwhile, Romo — who should have a better handle of broadcasting mechanics at this stage of his career — struggles to finish his commentary on-time, often bleeding into what should be Nantz’s play-by-play. Doing that on occasion is understandable. Sometimes the offense operates without a huddle or rushes to the line to run the next play. But Romo’s commentary frequently spills over into Nantz’ play-by-play, disrupting the natural back-and-forth of NFL commentary.
Romo’s ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ approach to broadcasting was charming in 2017 and 2018, but he backed up that charisma with an ability to talk strategy, especially late in games. His sparkling performance during the 2018 AFC Championship Game — during which he predicted key plays before they happened — is the strongest example of Romo at his best.
Today, Romo often leans into storylines over strategy. Consider this past Sunday’s Colts-Chiefs broadcast. On the Colts’ first drive, Nantz set up Romo to break down what Indianapolis’ offensive line does well. Romo made a brief comment about how their linemen pull and move around. Then he went straight to the subplots.
Romo said, “Daniel Jones (Colts QB), though … great season … but how good, really, are you? Can you go into Arrowhead and beat the man?”
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with Romo wondering aloud if the Colts are ready to handle the spotlight. But Nantz set Romo up to offer analysis on the Colts’ offensive line. Who are their key performers? What is Indianapolis’ offensive scheme? What did a coach or player say about the success of the offensive line? These are the nuggets of analysis Romo often bypasses in order to restate a storyline.
Conversely, Brady has so much detailed knowledge in his head that his production crew has urged him to dial back on some of the preparation and just let the broadcast flow.
Both analysts lack the polish of Greg Olsen and Troy Aikman, but Brady — after a forgettable start — is developing into a decent analyst, while Romo — after a remarkable start — has regressed.
Plus: The key to Cris Collinsworth’s longevity
This past Sunday, NBC “Sunday Night Football” analyst Cris Collinsworth worked his 500th broadcast. Once the self-assertive (sometimes brash) young analyst, Collinsworth has mellowed and become one of NFL broadcasting’s elder statesmen.
Amidst a changing NFL media landscape that has seen the phasing out of veterans like Ron Jaworski, Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms in favor of younger voices like Greg Olsen, Dan Orlovsky and Matt Ryan, how has Collinsworth remained on top?
Collinsworth has mastered the mechanics and he knows which tool to use in the booth. When he needs to be a storyteller, he can do it. Looking for a clever anecdote a coach shared during a production meeting? Collinsworth has it. He is perhaps second only to Madden at breaking down offensive line play. And when he needs to deliver a strong opinion, as he did during the Lions-Eagles week 11 game, he brings it.
“Come on! That is terrible!” Collinsworth exclaimed after Lions defensive back Rock Ya-Sin was flagged for pass interference on a play late in the 4th quarter. “That is an absolutely terrible call that’s going to decide this football game!”
His “aw shucks” presentation — as well as his love of Patrick Mahomes — is off-putting to some, but even at 66 years old, Collinsworth supplies SNF viewers with everything they need.
