Will Tom Brady Ever Call an NFL Game for FOX?

To say that there's been some doubt internally at The Big Lead that Tom Brady would ever call a game for FOX and start earning some of that $375 million contract would be a massive understatement. It didn't happen last year despite whispers they'd rush him into the Super Bowl booth, and it's not happening this year because Touchdown Tom requires another year to come down from the adrenaline rush of playing for so long. So maybe next year or the year after that. But again, maybe never because he chooses to do something else like perfect an even more perfect T-shirt you can buy for the very reasonable three-figure price.

Crucially, our feelings are mostly vibe-based instead of coming from any deeply-sourced reporting. Yet we feel even better about the stance based on comments made by the New York Post's Andrew Marchand on his weekly podcast with John Ourand. Marchand has moved his needle over to the more doubtful side of the spectrum.

"It was at 51 percent that he's going to do it to 49 that he's not going to do it with the reasoning it's so much money he'll try it for a year," he explained. "However, I've talked to a couple people recently close to Brady and I kind of feel like I'm going 49 percent chance he does it, 51 percent chance he doesn't. He doesn't want to travel that much — obviously he's going to go private. I think Brady's a guy who if he's in, he's all-in so he's not going to be showing up day of games like Joe Buck and Troy Aikman do sometimes, he's going to be there early if he's going to do it. So it's going to be a four-day event, again, cry me a river for that type of money for five and a half months."

It's not the type of strong statement that will earn the sports media czar an invite to a morning debate show but it isn't nothing. The juiciest contract and sexiest name to ever be wishcasted into a broadcast booth just never coming to fruition would certainly be something. It'd be a major disappointment for FOX yet not a total loss because think of all the free publicity they've already garnered by the announcement.

Then again, counting out Tom Brady has been a recipe for disaster ever since the term "hanging chad" entered the lexicon so it's a dangerous game for anyone brave enough to do it. We're still ready to get hurt.