The Super Bowl is coming up Sunday. Technically, the game is between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. But those of us who follow the media see this as Tom Brady’s Super Bowl. He will call the game for Fox Sports.
Brady was the main topic in my conversation with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch in the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” which debuts today.
Brady is in the first year of a massive 10-year, $375 million contract. His season has been a mixed bag. Some good, some bad. He seems to be getting better each week.
If you read this newsletter regularly, you know I’m constantly linking to the work of Deitsch, who covers sports media for The Athletic and has a must-listen-to podcast called “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch,” And, even if you have a passing interesting in sports media, you’ll enjoy this episode.
About Brady and Sunday’s Super Bowl, which will be watched by more than 100 million people, Deitsch told me, “Having covered this a long time, the reality for Tom Brady is that Tom Brady’s year in broadcasting will be judged on the Super Bowl. No one’s going to remember week four or week 10. You’re going to remember Eagles-Chiefs — how he was in that game, and probably even more, on a micro level, how he was in the most important moment or moments of that game. And how did he reflect that to the audience? That ultimately — that’s how Tom Brady will be judged for his first year in the booth.”
Aside from lots of talk about Brady, we discuss how desirable this matchup is for Fox Sports — and we get into some other topics, such as whether the Super Bowl will ever be shown on a streaming network, how Netflix is getting into live sports coverage and the popularity of the WNBA.
And yes, we also talk a little about political coverage. It’s especially notable at this moment as Deitsch, an American who now lives in Canada for work, talks about Canada’s reaction to Trump being back in the White House.
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