The last time the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles faced off in the Super Bowl, Greg Olsen, a former NFL tight end, was part of Fox’s top announcing team alongside Kevin Burkhardt.
Now, two years later, Olsen won’t be calling the game as Fox’s top analyst. Instead, Tom Brady has taken over that role, despite Olsen receiving high praise for his work as a lead analyst.
Olsen, however, sees this as a temporary shift. “In my mind, I’m going to call big-time games again,” Olsen told the Charlotte Observer‘s Scott Fowler this week. “I’m going to call Super Bowl games again. I just don’t know the timeline or the venue.”
Brady, who is in the first year of his 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox, has replaced Olsen, who still has two years left on his deal.
Despite the conflict of interest with Brady being a partial owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, Brady isn’t expected to leave the booth anytime soon.
Olsen, who has expressed his dissatisfaction with being moved to Fox’s No. 2 analyst role, spoke with management about his frustration.
“It’s pretty clear that the path, the upward trajectory as far as Fox goes, probably is a non-factor,” Olsen said. “I don’t know what the future holds. I enjoy working at Fox. Fox has been very good to me. They know. I’ve been very honest with them that I’m not content just calling one o’clock regional games for the rest of my career.”
Though Olsen is no longer at the stadium for NFL playoffs, he still thinks about the games he would have called. He admitted it’s hard to just watch now.
Brady has praised Olsen since it was announced that he’d take over as Fox’s top analyst. Olsen emphasized that there are no hard feelings toward Brady. “We’ve talked. He’s been super-great, gracious and grateful in return,” Olsen said. “So there’s no personal animosity in any of this, right? This is strictly business.”
