Greg Olsen's 2024 NFL season with FOX Sports is over after he took 18 weeks settling into his demotion in result of Tom Brady's onboarding taking precedent.
As Olsen watches nationally broadcasted games he got comfortable with commentating on over the last few years, he feels the restlessness of not being able to contribute his takes on the action unfolding on his own television.
It's hard to sit there and watch games that over the last couple of years you were preparing for and you were calling. And then you're sitting there on your couch and you're watching the game, you're almost kind of broadcasting the game in your brain. You're saying, 'Oh, man, what would I have said on this play? There was so much to talk about there. That would've been super fun to dive into.'
"So you're kinda driving yourself crazy with all these what-if scenarios as you're watching the game. It's very hard now to watch the games and just sit back and watch.
He doesn't blame the network nor Brady for his adjusted role, but regardless of the circumstance, Olsen has his sights set on returning to the primetime screen again — no matter when or how.
"In my mind, I'm going to call big-time games again," Olsen told the Charlotte Observer. "I'm going to call Super Bowl games again. I just don't know the timeline or the venue." Olsen also spoke to The Athletic recently about how his goal is to return to top games.
The timing of Brady's retirement affected Olsen's timeline at Fox inconveniently. Fox had announced that Brady would take over the color commentating role beginning one year after his retirement; this was before Olsen was promoted to the top role. So in essence, his time there always had an expiration.
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Despite widespread speculation that Brady might step away from broadcasting to take on a minority ownership role and a key decision-making position with the Raiders, he has firmly stated that he plans to return to Fox next year.
With two years left on Olsen's deal, he expressed gratitude for the opportunities that the network has provided him with.
"It's pretty clear that the path, the upward trajectory as far as Fox goes, probably is a non-factor.... I don't know what the future holds. I enjoy working at Fox," Olsen said. "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."
The only issue is that all the other networks don't have any vacancies coming up in the near future with CBS's Tony Romo and NBC's Cris Collinsworth signed on for the long-term and Amazon's crew locked in for the next two years.
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