You wouldn’t believe it if Tom Brady said he was tired. Right? Well, that’s because the excitement after his play-calling debut with FOX wore him out. “I’m not tired from the game, I’m just tired from the buildup,” Brady said as he rested on a private jet. Those were his emotions after his week 1 debut.

“A lot of emotional buildup, and not quite knowing how things are going to go, and certainly a lot of fun. Definitely things to clean up, so it’s all a learning process, man.” There are things to clean up because Brady sounded like a no. 1 overall pick rookie who just had an underwhelming performance in his first game.

That’s because before leading up to this point, Brady was used to a vigorous “physical preparation,” that had nothing to do with his soft skills. But what broadcasting demands is something different. It’s not easy to explain a complicated play in a layman’s language and that’s what the preparation is for.

“The preparation is, I’d say, intense. It’s just the physical preparation is not, which just feels so f—king weird to me. I’m so tired of running around in helmets and shoulder pads.” said Brady before the week 1 Cowboys-Browns bout. Still, his commentary was nothing similar to someone like Greg Olsen, who gave up his job to make space for Brady.

After the 33-17 Cleveland defeat, Brady will be headed to the AT&T Stadium to announce the Cowboys–Saints game. Maybe next time will be different, or at least Brady thinks so. All we know is, the 7x Super Bowl winner is “excited” about the next opportunity coming his way very soon.

“Felt like I was doing what I should be doing. And I just know it’s going to get better,” Brady added later. The internet is pretty divided on Brady’s new venture in the world of sports broadcasting. After all, him scoring a 10-year $375 million deal with FOX makes a lot of people envious and apprehensive of his commentating abilities.

Let’s look at some instances that Brady could have avoided

Probably not a lot of people can smack talk about Brady’s quarterbacking skills. But now that he’s entered the realm of entertainment, people are not hesitant to call him the “worse announcer” at all. Why is that? What’s so awkward about TB12s debut? Well, for starters, his fist bump to Mike Pereira was a bit awkward.

Pereira left him hanging on live TV, Brady kept waiting, before he said, “don’t leave me hanging,” as Pereira was busy with his duties. If that wasn’t weird enough, Brady went on to explain why teams cannot lose yards. Really? Isn’t that obvious? But hold on, there are a few more instances.

Brady, at times, went on and on about Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett’s defensive prowess, which got boring at some point. But some other NFL analysts like Scott Hansen thought Brady wasn’t too “excited” when the Cowboys considered a 71-yard field goal. “Brady’s got to get more excited than that in the booth,” Hanson said.

“Brady’s personal performance was sort of like Williams’. It was a win for Fox to have Brady on air, even if his performance wasn’t amazing,” that’s what The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand thought of Brady’s debut with FOX, also iterating how his syntax was “stilted.”

This is Brady’s journey into a new life. Him faltering occasionally is expected and, sure, there’s room for improvement. But consider this: FOX will be broadcasting the Super Bowl this year and Brady will be their announcer.

About 100 million people are expected to watch that game. Being an analyst is hard, dumbing down the complicated information for laymen like us is even harder. Hopefully, Brady can rise to the occasion, just like Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen did once.