Tom Brady explains move to Fox’s lead booth. And a look at NFL TV changes this season

Tom Brady certainly didn’t need this job, not after winning seven Super Bowls, not after making a fortune as a player and as a product endorser.

But for high achievers, life is about new challenges, and one of the NFL’s most decorated players in history now faces a big one: Flourishing as a rookie analyst, on Fox’s lead announcing team, after never calling a game on television in his life.

And if that’s not daunting enough, Brady is replacing Greg Olsen, who was critically acclaimed in the role.

So why is Brady doing it? Fox is reportedly paying him an unfathomable $375 million to call games over the next 10 years. But there’s more to it than that.

“It’s always about challenging yourself to grow in different areas,” Brady told Front Office Sports this offseason. “And this is certainly one way that I’m doing it.

“I believe I can provide a pretty unique perspective that I think a lot of people will really like. It’s going to be a lot of hard work. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Brady has reached out to Troy Aikman and other analysts for advice and guidance.

His preparation has included “a lot of studying, a lot of research, a lot of talking to a lot of friends who are in the business and that have gone through their own growing pains.

“Reaching out to some of the best in the industry that have given me some great advice and then just going in there and just doing dry runs and practice. Fortunately, I think there’s a database of knowledge that’s been built up over 23 years of sitting in meeting rooms and being in game-plan meetings.”

Brady said in that interview that he has “developed a great rapport” with Kevin Burkhardt, who has fully justified his elevation to the lead team following Joe Buck’s move to ESPN’s Monday Night Football in 2022.

He also expressed respect for Olsen, who received high marks for his call of the Super Bowl last season. Olsen is now moving to Fox’s No. 2 team and will take a 70 percent pay cut from $10 million to $3 million annually.

“I love Greg,” Brady said. “Greg’s done an incredible job and he’s got a great future and great career. Obviously already had one as a player, had one as a broadcaster, and anything Greg puts his mind to, he’s going to be incredibly successful as well.”

Brady’s hiring caused a domino effect in Fox’s announcing lineup. While Olsen will be paired with Joe Davis on the No. 2 team, Fox’s former No. 2 analyst - Daryl Johnston - will slide all the way down to the sixth team, with Kevin Kugler.

Mark Sanchez was promoted from the No. 5 team to the No. 4 team, alongside Adam Amin. Kenny Albert and Jon Vilma move up from the No. 3 team, and Mark Schlereth slides from the No. 3 team to the No. 5 team, alongside Chris Myers.

AROUND THE DIAL

More NFL broadcast changes this season:

▪ On CBS, the studio show has undergone its most significant change in decades. CBS didn’t renew the contracts of Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms, opting for a younger cast of former players (JJ Watt, Matt Ryan and Nate Burleson), alongside ex-coach Bill Cowher and host James Brown.

Ryan spent his first season on broadcasting on CBS’ No. 4 team, with Andrew Catalon and Tiki Barber.

CBS now will pair Jason McCourty with Catalon and Barber on its fourth team.

CBS’ other top teams teams return intact: lead team Jim Nantz and Tony Romo; No. 2 team Ian Eagle and Charles Davis; No. 3 team Kevin Harlan and Trent Green; and No. 5 team Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta.

Harlan, viewed as something of a lucky charm by Dolphins fans, was assigned to the Dolphins’ first two CBS games: the opener at home against Jacksonville and Week 3 at Seattle.

▪ Amazon - which continues to carry Thursday night games - acquired the Saturday night wild card game that streamed on Peacock last year. Most of Amazon’s December Thursday games are pretty good, on paper: Green Bay-Detroit; Rams-San Francisco; Cleveland-Cincinnati and Seattle-Chicago.

▪ Peacock, meanwhile, snagged rights to the Packers-Eagles game on Friday night, Sept. 6 from Brazil.

▪ Netflix secured live NFL games for the first time; it will stream Kansas City against Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. and Baltimore-Houston at 4:30 on Christmas, opposite NBA games on ESPN and ABC.

▪ As was the case last season, ABC and ESPN will carry simultaneous games, with staggered starts, on three Monday Night Football, including Week 4, with Dolphins-Titans at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN and Seattle-Detroit at 8:15 p.m. on ABC.

▪ Unable to find another NFL head coaching job, Bill Belichick will work in media this season. He will appear on the Manningcast presentation of Monday Night Football games on ESPN2 and will join Chad Johnson, Ryan Clark and Chris Long on Inside the NFL, which now airs on Friday nights on the CW Network (WBFS-Channel 33 in Miami).