Greg Olsen opens up on demotion after Tom Brady's $375,000,000 Fox arrival
Tom Brady is ready to start his second career after conquering the gridiron. The seven-time Super Bowl champion is set to take on the world of broadcasting. However, Brady’s arrival has meant a sort of demotion for Fox Sports’ Greg Olsen.
The former Carolina Panthers tight end Olsen was the primary color broadcaster for Fox until Tom Brady's $375 million, 10-year deal took effect. Now, Olsen will be covering games with a secondary team and will not be broadcasting the biggest games of the season.
On Thursday at the ‘SI Media’ podcast, Greg Olsen opened up about his new role. While Olsen contended that he does not consider the new role strictly a "demotion," he did agree that he won’t be able to cover the important games anymore.
“When they say, ‘We got Kansas City v. San Francisco this year, first time, we're getting a Super Bowl rematch on network history,’” Olsen said. “I'm assuming everybody in that room is like, ‘Man, I wish I was calling that game’. And for the last two games for the last two years. That was us. Right? Like, that was, ‘Hey, what's the best game?’ and we know we're gonna get that.
"I think competitive standpoint. And especially after you get a little taste of it, of course you know, you want to call the best games… the opening the opening games,” he added.
Olsen also highlighted the types of games that any broadcaster would like to be a part of. This season, he won’t be covering these games due to the former New England Patriots QB’s arrival.
“You want to call games to 40 million people, you want to call games on Thanksgiving primetime. You want to call games 4:25 slot. I think everybody in the industry does. So yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. Would you rather call those games? Yes,” he said. [00:28:51 – 00:29:45]
Olsen also highlighted that he has no ill will towards Tom Brady or the higher-ups at Fox.
Greg Olsen's pay cut after the arrival of Tom Brady
Tom Brady is being paid big bucks for his job; however, it was earlier reported by The Athletic that it's Olsen who will end up paying for it. According to the report, Olsen was set to make $10 million this year, which has been slashed down to $3 million. The NFL fans had their say on the matter as well.
However, during his podcast appearance, Greg Olsen listed his “pay-cut articles” as something he doesn’t pay any attention to. He neither confirmed nor denied these reports.