Ian Eagle Weighs in on the Greg Olsen–Tom Brady–Kevin Burkhardt Dynamic
1. The biggest story in sports media over the past several weeks has been the emergence of Fox’s Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, coming off a great call of Super Bowl LVII, and that booth being in jeopardy of breaking up after next season when Tom Brady goes into broadcasting.
While most of the focus of the story centers on Brady replacing Olsen, Burkhardt’s position in the saga is fascinating. He’s worked with Olsen now for a few years, and they’ve established excellent chemistry. But Burkhardt also has the chance to work with the greatest quarterback of all time.
I asked Ian Eagle, another outstanding play-by-play man, on the latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast, for his take on Burkhardt’s part in all this and how Burkhardt can and should handle the situation.
“He’s a pro,” said Eagle. “And he’s so easy to work with and so malleable. He’s going to be able to adjust whatever the decision is. The fact that they have another year together, I think, for both of them probably is a sense of relief that it didn’t end with a Super Bowl. They get to do this for another year. There will be speculation as to what Tom wants to do. He’s taking a year to figure out exactly what he wants. Does he want to do this every weekend? Does he want to make this that big a part of his life? And he might love being off for a year.
“So if you’re Greg Olsen, you do what you’ve been doing. Go out; do excellent work. He and Kevin are a terrific team.”
Eagle told the podcast he has worked with Olsen on a couple of projects in the past and was “blown away by how honest he was, how sharp he was, how much insight he provided.” Eagle added, “You could tell this guy had a chance to be really good at this. So it’s not that shocking that he’s done this at a very high level.”
As for Burkhardt, Eagle said, “If you’re Kevin, go about your business. That’s the only thing you can do. The other part of the story is that these are arranged marriages. You don’t get to choose who you work with. Management makes the decision. You put your trust in that. I can just tell you from my perspective, you go out and you make it work. That’s your job. Your job is to make it work.”
Obviously, the wild card in all this is Brady and whether he will actually go into broadcasting after his year off in 2023. If Brady decides to give it a go, Eagle thinks the ceiling for the GOAT is very high.
“Tom is extremely likable, extremely smart, extremely insightful. I think he has a chance to be great at this if he wants to do this and truly do it full time. This guy hasn’t done anything poorly. Anything he puts his mind to, he’s gonna do well. If he puts the time and effort in, like I think he will, he’s gonna wanna be the best at it.”
I brought up that if Brady did join Fox, he’d have a target on his back since he’d be replacing a fan favorite in Olsen.
“You’re right,” said Eagle. “There will be the natural backlash because A) it’s Tom Brady, so there are many fans who already have a general feeling on him and then the second part is there are fans who like the pairing [of Burkhardt and Olsen] and rightfully so. They’ve been excellent together. So is there an X on his back. Yeah. But he’s dealt with a lot worse. I don’t think that it’s something he would lose a whole lot of sleep over.”
Eagle added, “I think the part he’s gonna have to determine is if he’s all in. If you're all in, then, this, not to say it consumes every part of your being, but knowing him, he’ll wanna be great and being great requires you to put the time and effort in.”
In addition to the Burkhardt-Olsen-Brady triangle, Eagle talked about becoming the lead voice of the NCAA tournament beginning in 2024, working with Bill Raftery, his favorite call of all time, how Richard Jefferson once pulled off a prank involving Chappelle Show, shaving, Aaron Rodgers’s darkness retreat and much more,
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
2. ESPN gave us one of the all-time most ridiculous scrolls this morning.
Speaking of ridiculous and Aaron Rodgers ...
3. I don’t know whether any of you remember the Sesame Street song “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.”
But that song was all I could think about when I saw this Wednesday.
4. The New York Post‘s Andrew Marchand reports that Charles Barkley is considering teaming up with Gayle King for a weekly talk show on CNN. CNN and Turner Sports are both owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and according to Barkley, he would take the gig to be a team player.
“I just want to help the company because obviously it is a s--- show right now,” Barkley told Marchand. “Anything I can do to help.”
5. Regular Traina Thoughts readers know I love a good “imagine if Twitter was around for this” moment and we have a doozy today. On this date in 1985, Indiana coach Bobby Knight heaved a chair across the court.
6. This Mississippi State pitcher is going viral because he throws 90-plus miles per hour–AS A RIGHTY AND LEFTY.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: On this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast, around the 42-minute mark, Ian Eagle tells a great story about Richard Jefferson’s using Chappelle Show’s famous Rick James sketch to prank one of his Nets teammates. So I had to feature the legendary video today.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
