Drew Brees made his NFL playoff broadcasting debut in the broadcast booth last weekend. The future Hall of Famer was alongside Mike Tirico, a legend in his own right, for the Raiders-Bengals Wild Card game.
But an NFL playoff game draws a lot more attention than a regular-season contest and Brees received some criticism for being “vanilla” with his color commentary.
Responding to the heavy negative feedback online, former ESPN personality Mike Golic shared his thoughts with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch on his sports media podcast regarding Brees’ first year in the booth.
Golic stated that it’s harder to make the transition from the field to the broadcast booth in today’s industry than in the past because people are much more hypercritical today.
“When Drew started doing the Notre Dame games, people would tweet at me, ‘What do you think?’ I said listen, I’m not judging a guy when he just starts,” Golic told Deitsch, via Awful Announcing. “He’s a walk-in Hall of Famer. But he’s now in a different world of learning timing and everything that goes with a TV broadcast, which he’ll learn.”
Golic continued on Brees’ upcoming career journey.
“He’ll learn in time… your first and then your hundredth is a different person. But unfortunately, you get judged early and then you get tagged with that. ‘You’re supposed to be great at this.’ Man, that’s unfair but, you know what, unfair or fair, that doesn’t come into play. You’re gonna get that opportunity and you’re gonna be judged immediately on it.”
Brees will no doubt continue to be in the NBC booth for high-level games. But his improvement and overall performance will surely be something to keep an eye on.