Former NFL player and current FOX Sports color commentator Greg Olsen sat down for an interview with The Big Lead on Thursday. He discussed a number of topics including how his first year in the booth went and why he decided to go into broadcasting after his playing days were over.
The All-Pro tight end mentioned his partner Kevin Burkhardt, saying the veteran broadcaster helped him out a lot during his rookie season as a broadcaster and how pumped he was when he heard the news that Burkhardt would be replacing Joe Buck as Fox’s number 1 play-by-play guy for their marquee NFL games.
“I called him and said, ‘Man, I’m so pumped for you,'” Olsen told The Big Lead. “He’s worked his whole adult life, scratched and clawed his way up. When I first met him he was calling high school football games for an AM radio station in North Jersey, fresh out of college. That’s when I first met him in the early 2000’s and now he’s calling a Super Bowl this year.”
Olsen continued, saying his former partner is more than deserving of the opportunity.
“It’s just something I can’t even process right now, but everybody that knows him couldn’t be happier for him and couldn’t think he’s more well-deserving.”
While FOX found its replacement for Buck, who was with Fox for over 20 years, the network still has yet to announce Burkhardt’s partner. Some of the names that have been tossed around include Michael Strahan, Sean Payton and Drew Brees. Richard Deitsch believes Greg Olsen is the lead candidate for the job.
“As one well-connected Fox Sports staffer told me this week, top management looked at their NFL analyst roster last year as Aikman and Olsen in the top tier, and then others in tiers below. But that’s not a guarantee Olsen gets moved up,” Deitsch wrote last month for The Athletic.
