How Super Bowl could be a defining moment for Brady

Tonight’s game offers the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback a chance to prove his worth in the TV booth

- JACK RATHBORN

Tom Brady has played in 10 Super Bowls, he’s won seven of them and become synonymous with the big game over the last two decades. Yet, now, his 11th Super Bowl, this time announcing, will prove pivotal to his success and longevity as a commentator.

Brady has been met with adulation and animosity in equal measures throughout his career, stoking emotions around this enormous meeting between sport and entertainment. Tonight, as not only the highest-paid announcer in sport, with Fox on a 10-year, $375m (£302m) deal, but in the peculiar and conflicting position as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, he is braced for intense scrutiny over three-and-a-half hours.

Much like facing the ferocity of a defensive lineman closing in, Brady endured a jittery start to life in the booth. But in New Orleans, in front of an expected audience of 120 million, Fox expects him to remain composed and deliver after a testing debut season.

Fresh from a new high calling the NFC Championship game, Brady tapped into his encyclopedic playbook with a Tony Romoesque impression as the Philadelphia Eagles battled the Washington Commanders two weeks ago.

“This is where he usually looks in this situation,” Brady uttered while scribbling a yellow circle on the screen to point the viewer’s attention to Zach Ertz as the ball was snapped to quarterback Jayden Daniels. A vital fourth-down conversion, down eight points in the fourth quarter, was duly completed to the tight end. “You called it,” lead commentator Kevin Burkhardt replied a few seconds later.

So here, as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles, Brady ought to relish this stage and a rare opportunity to divulge unheard stories and rare insight into exactly what it takes to win it all. Notably, his unique standing and history with Patrick Mahomes, after their careers briefly overlapped, makes for a fascinating subplot to his announcing performance.