It’s rare for an NFL game — and a good matchup at that — to be overshadowed by who is in the broadcasting booth.
The NFL schedule will be announced Wednesday, but one of the biggest games has been released early. Fox said its late Sunday game in Week 1 will be the Dallas Cowboys at the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 8 at 4:25 p.m. ET.
More notable than the game itself is it will mark Tom Brady’s debut on Fox. The all-time great quarterback signed a monster 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox and will be the network’s lead color commentator.
The Brady component of the Cowboys-Browns game is notable enough that the NFL allowed its network partner to announce that game Monday, two days before the rest of the schedule.
Brady gets a good first game to broadcast. The Cowboys are coming off an NFC East championship and are always a huge draw. The Browns made the playoffs last season too and should be a contender in the AFC North. It’s a compelling game and will be in the coveted late afternoon window. As Andrew Marchand of The Athletic pointed out, there will be no NFL game on CBS to compete with Cowboys-Browns; CBS will be showing the US Open tennis tournament.
Brady was a hot name for networks as he neared his retirement from a legendary career. Fox landed him for an unheard of contract in the broadcasting world. We have yet to see and hear Brady broadcast a game, making the $375 million gamble by Fox a big one.
It’s rare for a broadcaster’s debut to be one of the big stories of Week 1, but few have been as anticipated as Brady’s first game.
