Greg Olsen was a key part of the second-most-watched TV broadcast of all time.
On Feb. 12, 2023, more than 115 million people tuned in to Super Bowl LVII to see the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. The game was broadcast on Fox, with Kevin Burkhardt handling the play-by-play duties and Olsen providing color commentary.
Next month could provide an encore of sorts. Super Bowl LIX is back on Fox. The Eagles and Chiefs are back as the competitors. Burkhardt will be back in the broadcast booth, and Olsen … well, he won’t be back.
Olsen was replaced as Burkhardt’s partner on Fox’s No. 1 broadcast team this season by NFL legend Tom Brady, who will wrap up his rookie season as a commentator at the biggest game of the year. In a series of interviews this week to promote an event for his “The Heartest Yard” foundation, Olsen made clear how he feels about being demoted and left out of the network’s postseason plans.
“It sucks,” Olsen told the Charlotte Observer.
He told the Athletic that while “resentment” probably isn’t the most accurate word to describe his feelings on the situation, “I also think it’s not too far off, if I’m being honest.”
“I don’t have any ill will — there’s no personal resentment towards Tom, or obviously K.B. and Erin [Andrews],” Olsen said. “I still talk to all of them fairly regularly. … But yeah, it’s hard to sit there and watch games that over the last couple of years you were preparing for and you were calling.”
A three-time Pro Bowl selection at tight end, Olsen ended his 14-year NFL career following the 2020 season. He joined Fox in 2021 and was paired with Burkhardt in the broadcast booth.
When Joe Buck and Troy Aikman left Fox for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” Burkhardt and Olsen became Fox’s No. 1 announcing team. As such, they got to call the network’s biggest games each week and throughout the postseason. In the 2022 season, that included the Super Bowl.
The duo proved to be popular with fans, with an AwfulAnnouncing.com reader survey ranking Burkhardt and Olsen as TV’s fourth-best NFL broadcast team in 2023. For that same year, Olsen won the Sports Emmy for best event analyst.
But Olsen’s days as part of that team were numbered from the beginning.
In May 2022, Fox and Brady agreed to a 10-year, $375-million deal that would make the seven-time Super Bowl champion the network’s lead football analyst once his playing days were over. Brady retired after the 2022 season, then took the 2023 season off before joining Burkhardt in the booth last fall.
Olsen landed on his feet. He and new partner Joe Davis may be considered Fox’s No. 2 broadcast team, but they were voted by Awful Announcing readers as the best broadcast booth this season — 13 spots higher than the Burkhardt/Brady booth. Olsen also teamed with Noah Eagle to call the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game for Netflix on Christmas Day.
It’s not enough for Olsen.
“My goal is to call top games,” he told the Athletic. “I’ve been very adamant about that over the last couple years. My goal is still to get back there. I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know where that takes place. But I’m continuing to work towards that goal and hopefully have the opportunity [to] get back to calling these marquee games.”
Where that might happen remains to be seen. Olsen told the Observer he has two years left on his contract with Fox. Barring something unforeseen, Brady would appear to have the top analyst spot locked down at that network for the better part of the next decade.
“It’s pretty clear that the path, the upward trajectory as far as Fox goes, probably is a nonfactor,” Olsen told the Observer. “… 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.”
