Rob Gronkowski discusses 'unfair' pressure on Tom Brady as announcer

Tom Brady has understandably been somewhat of a mixed bag while completing his first season as Fox's lead in-game NFL analyst. 

Current Fox studio personality Rob Gronkowski first grew close with Brady when they shared locker rooms during stints with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gronkowski recently spoke with RG's Crissy Froyd about how Brady has grown as a broadcaster from Week 1 through the ongoing playoffs that will end with TB12 calling Super Bowl LIX.

"I love what Tom’s doing," Gronkowski said. "He’s been developing throughout the whole year. He was like a rookie quarterback coming in as the No. 1 pick [when he went into broadcasting]. A lot of pressure. There’s no doubt about that. I think it was kind of unfair, some of the pressure he was getting at the beginning of the year." 

Some analysts seemed downright eager to criticize Brady's work this past summer due to the 10-year, $375M deal he received from Fox before he retired as a player. Additionally, pockets of viewers are still upset to this day that he replaced fan-favorite Greg Olsen on the No. 1 Fox team. 

Brady sounded nervous, at times, early into his latest career journey, but he noticeably grew more comfortable in the role even as he had to follow strict guidelines due to his involvement as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. For a piece published on Tuesday, The Athletic's Richard Deitsch noted that Brady "improved during the year as an analyst, particularly in the area of translating his own wealth of experience to the audience." Meanwhile, Gronkowski thinks his former teammate "has shown tremendous improvement from Week 1 to now where he has such a great grasp of it that he can handle any situation" on gamedays. 

"Some of the expectations were extremely high to the point that everyone thought he was going to come in and be the best broadcaster of all-time because of how much it was talked about," Gronkowski added. 

Some industry experts remain convinced Brady will be done with Fox after the upcoming Super Bowl so that he can "run" the Raiders following the firing of general manager Tom Telesco. It will be interesting to see if he addresses such chatter at any point before Feb. 9.