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Tom Brady hasn't even stepped back into the booth for his second season with Fox yet and NFL fans are already fuming.
The legendary quarterback is entering the sophomore year of his $375million, 10-year deal as Fox Sports' lead NFL game analyst after his debut stint was heavily criticized last season.
Yet despite the backlash that Brady's rookie season as a broadcaster received, Fox confirmed Friday that the seven-time Super Bowl winner will remain on its No 1 crew.
The network announced that Brady, along with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and sideline reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi, will open the season with the Washington Commanders' matchup against the New York Giants in the nation's capital.
However, their big showdown will come the following week when Brady and Burkhardt will call the Super Bowl rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and reigning champions Philadelphia Eagles.
And the announcement was instantly met with backlash as NFL fans fumed over the decision to have Brady call the clash.
Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews, and Tom Brady (L-R) will form Fox's No 1 NFL crew again
Football fans fumed over the decision with many calling for Greg Olsen to replace Brady
'Tom Brady isn’t a good TV analyst,' one social media user bluntly declared, replying to Fox's post on X.
Most fans called for Greg Olsen to work the showdown after Brady replaced the former tight end on Fox's top crew last season.
'Greg Olsen not being on crew number 1 is embarrassing,' one fan claimed.
'I miss the Burkhardt/Olsen pairing. They were far better than Burkhardt/Brady,' another bemoaned. 'Too bad FOX made that terrible decision.'
'Greg Olsen > Tom Brady,' a third posted, while another added: 'Greg Olsen got shafted so hard.'
'Joe Davis and Greg Olsen are the best crew by a mile,' shared another.
Former Carolina Panthers man Olsen was the main man and adored by Fox viewers until Brady replaced him last year.
He still has a role with the network, calling games alongside Joe Davis as the No 2 crew, but Brady is very much the top dog.
The legendary quarterback is entering the second season of his $375million, 10-year contract
Social media users were left furious over Brady calling the Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl rematch
Brady only managed a surprisingly weak ranking in DailyMail+'s Power List of the nation's favorite sports analysts last week.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner – and perhaps the most famous entrant on the Power List – was only voted America's eighth favorite analyst.
Fellow former MVP and NFL analyst, Boomer Esiason, recently offered Brady a piece of friendly advice to help improve on last season's panned commentary.
'Hopefully, in year two, [Tom Brady will] feel more comfortable and more confident and understand exactly what the viewers are looking for,' Esiason told Awful Announcing last week.
Crediting Brady's comfort level with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, Esiason noted that Brady has traditionally refrained from any public criticism of NFL players or teams.
'Tom has always been careful, never really controversial, especially when it came to football,' Esiason said before referencing Brady's former Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick . 'Kind of followed the Bill Belichick way of talking about teams and things of that nature.
'And even meeting with Tom before games, he never really gave you much,' Esiason said. 'He was always guarded. I think what you try to do is become as genuine as you can in the broadcast booth.
'I don't necessarily know that anybody will be as genuine as the great John Madden was or Merlin Olsen was. Those were different times. There wasn't social media impacting everything that's going on. Not everybody's going to love you as a broadcaster. I learned that pretty early on.'
