Tom Brady is taking Greg Olsen’s spot

Now, let's get to Michael McCarthy covers sports in the media for Front Office Sports. I am a subscriber. The newsletter is great and he just did five burning questions that about Greg Olsen or Tom Brady among who should be the number one analyst for Fox coverage of football. It's easy. I've heard Greg Olsen.

I wouldn't change but I guess contracts are contracts. Mr. McCarthy, how you doing? I'm great.

Hey, thanks for the invite. So, first of all, what do you think of Olsen in that role? I think Olsen has been a revelation. His first year, he was actually doing this as an active player.

Yeah. And then he got the break of old breaks. After 20 years, Troy Aikman jumps to ESPN. So, they elevate him to where the number one team in 2022. Well, what does the guy do? He calls the most watched regular season game ever then the most watched Super Bowl ever and he was even better this season. So, I think he's a fantastic analyst. So, what is his move?

Look, Brady is a smart guy and I think he's got a great personality. So, my guess is that Tom will at the very least be good. I don't know if he'll be as good as Olsen. But what is Olsen's play here? Well, I think he's got several moves. I think the smartest move is to do nothing.

To take the number two job and drop down and accept the cut in salary and you know in the demotion because it is a demotion. Yeah. And how Brady does. I personally think Brady's going to be great. But look, there's been all sorts of can't miss players who stunk on TV, including his own idol, Joe Montana. So, there's no guarantees.

The other thing too is he's Tom Brady. Is he going to do this for 10 years? You know, or is he going to do it for one or two years and then go into the owner's box?

So, I think that's one option. But the secular option is just as alluring, which is one of these other networks says, you know what? This Greg Olsen is so good. We'll give him our number one job and then he jumps for more money. So, is there a possibility that NBC moves on from Chris Collinsworth?

I doubt it. Right now, there's no openings. But you know, Collinsworth is not getting any younger. He just turned 65.

Romo is getting a lot of heat. He's no longer a flavor of the month. You know, he could always go off and play the senior PGA tour.

Kirk Herb Street's contract at Amazon. Thursday Night Football is coming up in a couple of years. And like I said, you know, who knows if Brady will even like TV. So, I think right now, Greg Olsen has more options pretty much than anybody in sports media.

Here's like, this is not about Olsen or Brady. What do you make of Kevin Burkhardt as the number one football voice for Fox? You know, I mean, you may know this or not, but he was doing basically a sideline reporting on SNY for Mets games like four years ago, five years ago, he was just a reporter. And all of a sudden, he's the lead guy now.

America is a wonderful country, isn't it? And he was selling cars not that long before that. You're talking to a New York, New Jersey guy. He was selling cars in New Jersey.

Sure. So yeah, I mean, it's great. I think one of the reasons why Burkhardt is doing so well is because he has such good chemistry with Olsen. They literally go back to Olsen's high school days in Patterson. And you know what Kevin was calling his games back then. So one of my biggest questions, and I think this is a very underreported part of the story is, okay, Brady's coming in, and we know he's going to be number one, but how is Burkhardt going to get along?

And how is Olsen going to do without Burkhardt? First of all, you blew me away. He called Olsen's high school games in New Jersey? That is hysterical.

These guys go back 20 years. Well, yeah, you'll develop a lot of chemistry. You could tell they do have great chemistry. Look, again, and you pointed out Tom Brady's got an incredible personality. I don't think he's going to do this unless he thinks he can do it well.

But you're probably right. How long he wants to do it is another matter. Michael McCarthy, front office sports, is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. It is, by the way, pay cut from 10 million to 3 million. 10 million, by the way, is getting off cheap when it comes to lead NFL analyst Troy Aikman's in the neighborhood of 16 or 17 million dollars annually.

So let me ask you about, what is it? 18 and a half. 18 and a half? 18 and a half for Troy, 18 for Romo.

Wow. And what is Joe Buck at? Personally, I'm not sure these things should be public because there's no salary cap. We should really know these things, but it's fine that we do, I guess.

I would not want anybody to know. All right. Adam Brady is going to make more for Fox if he does the whole deal that he did his entire career on the field. Wasn't it like 10 years, 325 million or something like that? Yeah. 10 years, 375 million.

375. That is phenomenal. Michael McCarthy, front office sports is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. So Steven A. Smith, his contract is coming up.

I found this by getting the front office sports newsletter that people should get. So what, when does that deal end? And right now he's like the fifth highest paid personality on ESPN behind Aikman and Buck behind Greenberg and Pat McAfee. How does that sit with Steven A.? Get this man in the bag for crying out loud.

His contract is up in 15 months. At one time, he was number one at around 12 million, but in the last year, he's been superseded by Buck and Aikman and Pat McAfee. Now, Steven A. has played the good soldier about that. He said all the right things, but let me tell you, Steven A. is the most competitive person I've ever met.

Right. And he made it very, very clear to Clay Travis about kick that he wants to be the highest paid person in ESPN and that he deserves to be the highest paid person in ESPN. And if he isn't the highest paid person in ESPN, he can take his ball and go elsewhere. So he's going so that's going to be the biggest talent negotiation to watch over the next year.

All right. There's only really one other place he could go theoretically, and that would be to Fox. Would Fox do that?

And what did they do with Steven A.? How does that impact the greatest con man on television, Skip Bayless? I really don't see him going to Fox for this reason.

Uh, they don't have the NBA. You know, Steven A. is still inextricably bound to NBA. You know, it's his bread and butter. Uh, you know, even if you say, Hey, the Cowboys is his bread and butter now, I think, right. So I don't think Fox is, but I think it's much more likely that either he goes independent, you know, he sets up his own YouTube show, his YouTube empire, like, um, McAfee did, or B he goes into something else completely different. Late night TV, entertainment, even politics.

All right. Well, so some, sometimes as Magic Johnson found out, sometimes you go into areas you don't belong, no matter how good you are at what you do. Sometimes you go into areas where you don't belong. Uh, Steven A. has already waded into the political arena for, in certain issues and it hadn't worked out for him. Um, and he actually guest posted for Kimmel and he wasn't bad on late night. I did not see him guest host on Kimmel. Yeah.

It was, it was pretty good. So, uh, yeah, I mean, one thing Steven A. is not worried about is failing. Oh, that's true. That is true. He's willing to try it.

And that is, um, like there's an old phrase, dance like nobody's watching. Right. So Steven A. is not necessarily, uh, he doesn't care about all of that. Um, look, what would he, what would ESPN do without him? Cause I think they're ultimately going to pay him. What would they do without him?

Wow. You know, one of the ballsiest things he's done is he brought in Shannon Sharp for, they set up his own successor, right? He was like, if I leave tomorrow, here's the guy who can take the show for the next 10 years. They, they basically traded, they, they just swapped whatever that show is called undisputed. And, uh, first thing they just swapped Shannon Sharp for T Sean Johnson. Yeah. Look, you know, what did they do to replace him? He's irreplaceable. Uh, but you know, if they had to replace him, I would say they give Shannon Sharp first take and they move up JJ Reddick, uh, and Richard Jefferson on the NBA side.

That would be my guesses. Yeah. Reddick and Reddick and RJ are good.

I think really good together. Uh, Michael McCarthy front office sports final thing. And I don't know since I haven't read a ton about it since it broke a few weeks ago, the, uh, Amazon who is, has, is into the NFL and into sports in other ways. Uh, it looks like it's going to essentially bail out diamond sports group, which is the parent company of Valley sports. And for those people listening in North Carolina, that's how we watch the Carolina hurricanes.

And depending on where you are in Charlotte or other parts, that's how you watch the Charlotte Hornets. And it's a regional sports network around the country, baseball, basketball, hockey. Um, how long until Amazon takes over if they do and what is ultimate, what has it, what's it going to cost people? Like I'm already an Amazon prime member. What, what is it going to cost additionally, you think? I don't know what it's going to cost additionally, or if it will cost additionally, I think first they got to, you know, figure out this whole diamond thing. I think if major league baseball and Amazon had their druthers, they just get rid of diamond completely. You know, what do they need the middleman in all of it? You know, the company is bankrupt or heading that way. So, you know, Amazon would just prefer to do a deal directly with the league exactly as it does with the NFL up Thursday night football. So if I had a guess, that would be my guess how it's going in terms of, uh, prices, you know, Hey, do they ever go down? No, they never do.

They never do. In my experience of covering sports TV, they only go up, uh, such as having to pay for a peacock NFL playoff game. I was already a peacock subscriber, so I was okay with it. Um, and you know, I understand for the people who weren't, uh, but I'm also an Amazon prime subscriber.

Uh, but I don't even know because it's my wife's account. So I don't know what we, uh, what we pay per month. Uh, but I do know what we pay for the Bali app to watch it because if you are a YouTube TV person, you don't get Bali. Uh, so it's an additional $20 per month. I mean, I'm happy to save $20 a month and still get hurricanes games. Uh, if that's the way we're going, man, I hope it happens soon. That'd be great. Absolutely.

I could do something with $20 a month. I always want to, you know, come down on the side of consumer, whatever makes it easier for the consumer, uh, is, you know, what gets my support. One thing I just want to say about this whole thing is, you know, Hey, can we give it up to the old cable bundle?

That wasn't so bad. Well, here's the thing. Well, then they keep adding, they keep adding streamings, right?

They keep, so now you need this, you need that. Uh, you know, a few, a few years ago, Peacock wasn't a thing. Uh, you know, Paramount plus wasn't a thing. Uh, now ESPN plus has so much content.

I mean, I'm a, I'm a soccer fan, so there's tons of soccer on that as well. Um, but the, uh, now it costs almost as much as cable almost, not quite almost. It's satellite's a big rip off because the first year they give you the it's half price and then they double it on you.

And you're like, wait a second. I'm paying significantly more than I paid with cable. Yeah. Yeah. And what the streamers do is they, they get you with the one show, like, you know, I cover sports. So I have to have Amazon prime video and ESPN plus my son likes succession. So he has to have max right daughter, like, so was, so she has to have Disney and it is on and on and on fixing an hour.

I got seven of these things. Yeah. I think we're, uh, we're limiting it to two with Peacock. We don't even have Paramount. We have Peacock and ESPN plus.

Oh, we have Netflix. That's three. Well, let me limiting it to three for all.

I know we have five, uh, Michael McCarthy front office sports. Check out the newsletter. Uh, it's informative always, sir. I appreciate your time. Oh, thank you. You got it.