Football is a business, but man, this absolutely sucks for Greg Olsen. I understand that if Tom Brady wants to call games, you need to figure out how to make it work. After spending a year out of football, The GOAT will join Kevin Burkhardt in FOX’s No. 1 booth. While that is good and all and fine, that means Olsen will be demoted to FOX’s No. 2 team and will work alongside Joe Davis for this season.
Ryan Glasspiegel of The New York Post reported on Tuesday who Olsen’s new play-by-play partner will be for FOX. His former colleague now of The Athletic Andrew Marchand reported back in February that it will be a $7 million demotion Olsen will be taking, going from $10 million in FOX’s top booth to $3 million on the No. 2 team. Olsen will do his best to be a good sport about it, but come on!
Over the last several years, I cannot recall a former player going into the booth and crushing it quite like Olsen has. Yes, Tony Romo had the world under his finger at least initially, but a lack of prep has revealed him to be not to the standard of the Troy Aikmans and Cris Collinsworths of the world. Olsen was, and could still be, on that same career path. It just has taken a slight detour because of Brady.
The good news for FOX is Olsen has worked with Davis before, but this is how you lose great talent.
Tom Brady to cost Greg Olsen millions taking his spot in FOX’s No. 1 team
Depending on his contract status with FOX, I can safely say that Olsen will be the No. 1 commodity for any of the other major networks when he does hit the open market. I don’t think ESPN is going to be a player for him, as Aikman and Joe Buck have worked together for years and have fantastic chemistry. If Collinsworth wants to go to the studio, then maybe Olsen could partner up with Mike Tirico at NBC?
However, the two networks I think could be after Olsen the most whenever that day comes are Amazon and CBS. I would venture to guess that Olsen could replace Kirk Herbstreit on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football. That may require moving off the legendary Al Michaels as well to create an entirely new booth. Olsen works well with Burkhardt, he works well with Davis, he works well, period!
For my money, I would bet CBS will be the place where Olsen ends up if he does indeed leave FOX. While Romo and Jim Nantz does feel big at times, I think pairing Olsen with either Ian Eagle or Kevin Harlan could be earth-shattering. It would cut through and rival Buck and Aikman for the best tandem the NFL world has to offer. For now, we have to wait and see what comes up next for Olsen in all this.
Put yourself in Olsen’s shoes. How would you feel being asked to take a 70-percent salary reduction?