Former New England stars Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski give their thoughts on new Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, Bill Belichick’s future and why Tom Brady in a broadcast booth will be “gold for the viewers.”
This past NFL season was the first without Tom Brady since 1999.
But he'll be back in 2024... as a broadcaster.
The 46-year-old Brady finally appears to be done playing football as retiring last year. This coming season, he'll join Kevin Burkhardt in the booth for FOX Sports as the company's lead analyst.
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Brady, who joined FOX on a reported 10-year, $375 million deal, took last season off in order to "take some time to really learn." With FOX, he'll become co-workers with several former Patriots teammates -- including Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
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Edelman, in an interview with NBCU Local, shared what he expects from Brady as a broadcaster next season.
"I'm excited to see Tom in the booth," Edelman said. "Working with Tom for such a long time, you know how he prepares. He's going to be the most prepared guy. I bet you he's going to take this very similar to the NFL football season where he's not going to be the same announcer Week 1 as he's going to be in Week 17, 18, going into the playoffs.
"He's going to be using each and every rep as a learning experience. The more reps he gets, I bet he's just going to get better and better. So I'm really excited to see Tom because you know he's preparing, you know he's going to be ready."
Brady's evolution as a broadcaster, Edelman believes, could be similar to how he changed as a player over the course of a season. The Patriots historically had some ups and downs in September during Brady's career, but they evolved throughout each week and often peaked in the postseason.
"He's got a perspective of football that (is unique)," Edelman said. "We see all these guys on TV and we've seen all the announcers -- ain't nobody seen the field like Tom Brady. So, what he says is going to be gold for the viewer."
Brady and his FOX team are slated to call the Super Bowl next year in New Orleans -- the site of his first Super Bowl victory with the Patriots back in February of 2002.
