Tom Brady’s historic $375m Fox Sports deal shows familiarity breeds content

Fear not, Tom Brady will remain the face of Sundays for the foreseeable future.

Fox announced on Tuesday that Brady is set to join the network as its lead NFL analyst whenever it is that he decides to retire – which could be in 2023 … or 2063. The New York Post reported that Brady is in line to receive $375m across 10 years.

The deal will make Brady the highest paid sports broadcaster by some distance. It’s twice the record-breaking amount CBS handed to Tony Romo in 2020, and almost three times as much as the Disney company pays Stephen A Smith to function as a one-person network over at ESPN. In fact, it’s a contract that would make Brady the eighth highest-paid player in the NFL. He is, in essence, leaving $15m on the table this year so that he can keep playing football for the Bucs.

The figures are jarring. You have to hand it to him, Brady seems intent to earn back every cent he left on the football table when penning team-friendly deal after team-friendly deal in New England.

It’s a move that represents where sports broadcasting is heading. As recently as five years ago, the game’s most decorated star leaving the field to take a job calling games from the booth would have been beneath Brady’s station. Now, being a lead NFL analyst, working 20 on-air days a year, earning a salary that matches or betters the game’s top players, is a cushy, comfortable, lucrative, part-time gig. In the streaming age, live sports are king. And holding onto those live sporting rights is everything.

The timing of the announcement was telling. It was not released with a glossy media packet or via a social media push. It was announced by Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch during an investor call. Make no mistake, this was a move for investors, not