Joe Buck willing to give Tom Brady broadcasting advice

ESPN "Monday Night Football" play-by-play announcer Joe Buck is willing to give some broadcasting advice to Tom Brady if the recently re-retired quarterback asks. 

"I would do [that] in a heartbeat with all the help he’s given us over the years," Buck said about Brady while speaking with Derek Futterman of Barrett Sports Media. "There’s going to be a bit of a learning curve for Tom. I expect him to do it and do it well, but it’s a weird kind of thing to do. There’s a bit of acting involved. It’s a presentation as much as just knowing football. I’m sure he’ll be great, but I’m anxious to see." 

Futterman explained how Buck and broadcast partner Troy Aikman sat down with Brady ahead of the January playoff game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys which aired on ESPN and ABC. Near the end of the conversation, Brady said he wanted to touch base with both Buck and Aikman down the road because "he would need help determining how to perform the [analyst] job."

It was learned last spring that Brady and Fox agreed to a 10-year deal reportedly worth $375M for the seven-time Super Bowl champion to eventually become the network's lead NFL analyst. Brady retired "for good" on Feb. 1 and later told Colin Cowherd he's taking a so-called "gap year" before he enters the broadcast booth in 2024. 

In an interview shared earlier this month, Aikman predicted that Brady will "be fantastic" as an announcer because he will "be as prepared as he can possibly be when he starts." Buck told Futterman he believes "anybody would be an idiot to bet against" Brady even though the signal-caller is an unproven commodity as an announcer. 

Interestingly, Buck said this past fall he knew there were "people at Fox" at that time who were unconvinced Brady will ever "call a game there" regardless of the future Hall of Famer's plans for 2023. Buck made no such suggestion this time around, so perhaps he thinks Brady is serious about a retirement that's lasted longer than when TB12 temporarily rode off into the sunset in Feb. 2022. 

For what it's worth, Cowherd has also hinted that individuals "at Fox" have doubts about Brady becoming a broadcaster "any time soon."