Getty Tom Brady.
NFL legend Tom Brady got candid with an interviewer about the nerves and anxiety he’s felt throughout his football career and now his turn at broadcasting.
In a June 19 interview with Colin Cowherd on “The Cowherd,” Brady revealed that, after some NFL games, he thought, “I’m the worst quarterback in the NFL. Why would they want me to play quarterback for this team?”
However, he fought back nerves and anxiety in his football career with intense preparation, Brady said in the interview.
He compared his approach to sports broadcasting to the preparation he did before walking on the football field.
“I don’t want to let anyone down,” Brady stressed in the interview. “I don’t want to let the people at Fox here down. I certainly don’t want to let the great NFL fans down.”
According to Sports Illustrated, Brady, had his first turn as a Fox color commentator at a UFL Championship game in mid-June 2024.
Tom Brady Says He Has ‘More Room for Improvement’ as a Sports Broadcaster
Cowherd told Brady he knew he’d been practicing about a half dozen times “upstairs.” He asked if Brady noticed a difference in his broadcasting approach because of the practice, and Brady equated it to the intense prep work he did before playing football.
Brady said he noticed an improvement after practicing his broadcasting skills, but added, “There’s still so much more room for improvement. Almost like when I was a player, I never felt like I did things the right way. There were games where I would go in afterward and think I’m the worst quarterback in the NFL. Why would they want me to play quarterback for this team?”
As for broadcasting, Brady said, “I am sure I will feel that way here at Fox where I finish this game and I go, God, I didn’t even give them what they wanted. It’s a very challenging thing in your own mind. I’ve asked a few people, ‘How did you know you did a good job?’ I think for me so much of this is going to come down to the preparation.”
Brady continued, “Did I feel I was prepared, did I feel our crew was prepared? Did I give them the best over the course of the week?”
He noted, “Really, the game is the show. We’re there to add our take on it, our analysis.” He said he will ask himself, “Did we feel like we added to the broadcast? And from my standpoint, I’m going to work as hard as I can, the process of it, as you talk about earlier, to make sure I do deliver.”
Tom Brady Explained That He Combats Nerves & Anxiety With Preparation
GettyTom Brady met Drake Maye on May 19.
The host asked Brady whether he has “nerves.”
“I always had nerves because it’s a performance when you go out there on the field,” he said of playing football. “There was probably anxiousness, and there were nerves.”
He added that “the outcomes weren’t guaranteed for any of us.” Games are unpredictable and the “next thing you know, it’s the middle of the third quarter, and it’s a dog fight. You never really know how sports is going to go, which is why we all tune in. We tune in because the outcomes are unexpected. There’s a chance of winning and losing .”
That creates “nerves and anxiety,” said Brady.
He said the “only way I knew how to combat the nerves and anxiousness of the games was to prepare. I was someone who got really good at my preparation over the course of my career. I got really efficient with my time.”
When he had children, that affected things, he said. He had to learn how to “prepare knowing I have other things going on in my life,” Brady said.
As for sports broadcasting, he said he will be “working on the things that will actually add to the broadcast” rather than focusing on things that won’t ever come up.