1. Fox announced this morning that Tom Brady will become its leading NFL analyst when he really retires from playing. The beauty of this column called Train of Thoughts is that I can only unburden all my thoughts, and I have many of them, about this great news from the sports media. I will be a professional and I will keep my winning circle for the end.
- My first thought when I heard the news was: Obviously, the theory that Fock let Troy Aikman go to ESPN in order to save money on salaries is completely wrong. Brady Fox’s salary hasn’t leaked yet (I’m sure Andrew Marchand will get it sooner rather than later), but you can be sure it’s huge.
UPDATE: Like I said, Marchand had it and reported it on Tuesday afternoon.
- So did Fock let Aikman go to ESPN so he could chase Brady? According to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, that’s how it went. Was Fox angry that Aikman’s representatives were in negotiations with Amazon? No one would ever admit that, but it certainly sounds that way.
- The biggest winner here is, obviously, Fox. He will have the best quarterback of all time in the game. What is perhaps even more important for Fox is that he will have someone on the broadcasts who is as famous as a football player. Tom Brady has many attractions for marginal fans, and even for people who don’t care about football. In his statement today, Fox said that not only will Brady call the games for the network, but he will also be the “Ambassador of Fox”.
- I kept repeating it for months SI Media Podcast that it made no sense at all for Fox to let Buck and Aikman go after being with Fox for so long and many people thought it was the best cabin in the game. Something just seemed van about Fox who let them both go Mondai Night Football. Even Aikman said he didn’t know why it happened. It makes sense now.
- The other big winner is Kevin Burkhardt. Just a few months ago, Burkhardt was Fox’s No. 2 play-by-play caller. But Fox released Joe Buck from his contract a year earlier so that he could join Aickman on ESPN, and Burkhard was raised to No. 1. And now he will finally call those games with Tom Brady.
- On the other hand, Greg Olsen, who was part of Fox’s No. 2 last season, is now stuck in that role as long as Brady wants to continue calling networking games as her No. 1 analyst.
- The fact that the athlete went straight from the field to cabin number 1 of the net was a problem. It worked in the main way for Tony Roma and CBS. It was a disaster for ESPN and Jason Witten. It was hard for Drew Brees and NBC. But personally, I don’t see Brady as anything but a great success in this role. I have written this a million times and I will repeat: Ever since Brady left New England and Bill Belichick, he has shown us that he has many personalities. He is fun, charming and obviously knows football like everyone else. His appearance last season on ManningCast was great. I just don’t see Brady failing in the role.
- Last but not least: if you listened SI Media Podcast or read Train’s thoughts regularly, you know I’ve been pushing Brady’s theory to the cabin since he falsely retired.
I foresaw it back in January with Joe Buck, who mocked me:
I wrote about it on Feb. 3.
My point is to take the winning round? I hope this will make you subscribe and listen SI Media Podcast.
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2. As I mentioned before, Joe Buck is now on ESPN. He will be doing his first task for the network next weekend when he hosts the ManningCast version for the PGA Championship. Baku will be joined by Michael Collins at the event, and will be joined by the following people: Aickman, Josh Allen, Charles Barkley, Doris Burke, Fred Parls, John Ham, Peyton and Eli Manning.
The television will be broadcast for four hours every day on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN +.
3. I have no real evidence, but I would bet a lot of money that Jerry West’s lawsuit is against HBO Winning Time he gave the show much-needed publicity and caused a lot of people to watch it.
Via Diversity: Winning TimeThis season’s finals attracted 1.6 million spectators on Sunday. That was 73% more than the premiere episode and 31% more than the season average.
4. The NFL schedule for 2022 is still coming out. CBS announced today that it will broadcast the Broncos in Reims at 16:30 Eastern European Time on Christmas Day.
5. Within the NBA‘s (and recently SI Media Podcast guest) Kenny Smith talked to Chris Paul’s mother yesterday, and she shared ugly details about what happened between her and Mavericks fans during Sunday’s game.
6. This week Sports Illustrated Media Podcast contains an interview with Katie Nolan, who is part of the MLB coverage on Apple TV +.
Nolan talks about how she got the deal with Apple, what Apple is trying to achieve with its broadcast, realizing that traditional MLB fans may not get a TV broadcast, how she prepares for every game and the time she kept silent for a few innings after reading the reaction on social media.
Nolan also talks about her time at ESPN, what she liked about working there, whether she thought ESPN knew how to use it and what she learned about moving in the sports media.
The podcast ends with our weekly segment “Traina Thoughts” with Sal Licat from VFAN and SNI TV in New York. This week, Jimmy and Sal are reading recently SI Media Podcast Apple reviews, discuss that Kevin Harlan gets the best performance in Turner Sports, the NFL gives the game exclusively ESPN + and much more
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 67th birthday to the legendary Chris Berman.
Be sure to make up for previous editions of the Train of Thought and check Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Train at Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy further Twitter, instagram i TikTok.