One of the questions I kept asking myself when it was first reported that Tom Brady, the G.O.A.T of quarterbacks, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, would be following up his legendary career by becoming Fox’s top color analyst for NFL games, was, “How could he be so valuable to a network that it would be willing to pay him all that money to do it?”

I was responding to the $375 million deal the Fox network had agreed to pay Brady over a decade, starting in Week 1 of the 2024 campaign. Don’t get me wrong, I often said the same thing when I found out what networks like CBS, NBC and ESPN paid Tony Romo,  Chris Collinsworth and Troy Aikman, respectively, and those guys were making less than half what Brady was in line to earn in his deal with Fox.

Unlike when he would often play my Steelers during his 23-year career, I highly anticipated hearing and watching Brady make his debut on Fox’s Game of the Week this past Sunday, as the Dallas Cowboys took on the Cleveland Browns in a 4:25 matchup at Huntington Bank Field.

The fact that Brady took an entire year off before his debut as Fox’s top football analyst only made the anticipation greater.

So how did the G.O.A.T do? What was my initial reaction? I thought he did…okay. That’s right, I’m not going to be as harsh as others and say Brady flat-out sucked. That would not be accurate. In fact, if you want to see an example of a legend who truly sucked as an NFL analyst, click on this link and watch YouTube personality, JaguarGator9, breakdown how bad Steelers Hall of Fame defensive tackle Mean Joe Greene was as a CBS color analyst in 1982. Greene, who retired from the NFL following the 1981 season, was so awful that CBS fired him after just six games.

To be fair to Greene, professional athletes weren’t as media savvy then as they are today. Therefore, it was much more likely that someone would be offered a broadcasting job in the old days who didn’t possess the skills necessary for it. Today’s bad isn’t like yesterday’s bad (well, except for Jason Witten), and I had seen enough of Brady away from the gridiron over the years to know he wouldn’t be horrible as a broadcaster.

And he wasn’t in his debut on Sunday. Again, he was just okay, and he’ll likely get better and bring his “Let’s bleeping go!” competitive energy to the booth.

But how will Fox ever get its money’s worth from Brady? To reiterate, how do any of these networks make their money back when they pay these former players so much to broadcast games for them? I listened to Brady, and the kind of analysis he provided during the Cowboys/Browns contest was no different than what one has heard from the likes of Louis Riddick, Dan Fouts and Dan Dierdorf over the years.

There was nothing innovative in Brady’s delivery and analysis. There was nothing unique.

To steal and twist a line from Jason Bateman in the movie, Horrible Bosses: “Oh, boy, that was $375 million worth, huh?”

Evidently, these former athletes do make a difference for their networks. Take Fox’s studio crew, for example; it’s had the same personalities for years–including Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson. Meanwhile, CBS is constantly shuffling its studio lineup like an NFL team with cap problems.

To repeat: I just don’t see how they make THAT much of a difference. Ratings, I guess, but I mean, it’s the NFL. It’s America’s pastime. We’d watch no matter what. We’d watch if there were no studio shows. We’d watch if there were no former athletes doing color commentary for the games. Hell, we’d watch if there were no play-by-play broadcasters for the games.

I firmly believe Tom Brady will eventually find his footing as Fox’s number-one color analyst for NFL games. But will he ever win an Emmy for his work like Greg Olsen did before Fox demoted him in favor of the G.O.A.T?

Speaking of which, if you can win an Emmy as an NFL color analyst and still get demoted by your network, how valuable can you be as an NFL analyst?

Make it all make sense.