Tom Brady admits he caused his own mic failure on Fox's Eagles-Rams telecast

The former quarterback told Kevin Burkhardt that he dropped his notes binder onto the talkback button, cutting his own audio during the Eagles-Rams game.

Viewers of Fox Sports' Sunday telecast between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams heard Tom Brady's commentary stop without warning. The five-time Super Bowl MVP was in mid-explanation of a play alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt when his audio went silent.

Burkhardt covered the gap by acknowledging a problem with the microphone and promising to circle back to the point Brady had been making about protection. Brady's voice returned shortly afterward. "Alright, I'm back, everyone," he said, explaining that technical difficulties had briefly silenced him.

The real explanation surfaced later, when Burkhardt invited his partner to explain what went wrong. "Okay, my fault," Brady said, lifting a thick binder into view of the camera. The former quarterback said the oversized board, packed with the notes he planned to use during the game, had slipped onto the talkback button, and that he had sat there unable to hear his colleagues before realizing he was the one responsible.

Brady then joked that he had handled the episode the way a quarterback would, by accepting responsibility, and Fox Sports circulated the moment on X on October 4 with a caption riffing on that theme.

The on-air hiccup came four years into Brady's tenure as Fox's lead color commentator, a position he accepted in 2022 after stepping away from the game. His 10-year, $375 million contract with the network stands as the largest salary ever given to a sports commentator.

His transition to television was rocky at first, but his preparation and enthusiasm in the booth have gradually earned praise. Posts on X reflected that shift: one user called Brady and Burkhardt the finest commentary pairing, another praised their energy and pushed back at detractors of Brady's broadcasting, and a third compared the two to Kobe and Shaq. The messages ran with a clip of Darius Cooper's 18-yard touchdown catch.

Brady built his broadcasting platform on one of the longest resumes in league history. He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, collecting six Super Bowl titles and three NFL MVP awards, then joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent in 2020 and closed out his playing days in Florida, helping the club capture a Super Bowl in 2021.

His off-field portfolio has grown considerably since then. Beyond his ties to the Raiders, he has acquired minority stakes in the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces and English soccer's Birmingham City, and his wealth is estimated at about half a billion dollars.

Brady has also built a screen-business footprint through 199 Productions, the company he launched in 2020 to develop sports- and entertainment-focused documentaries, films and series. Its output includes the sports comedy 80 for Brady, featuring Rita Moreno, Sally Field, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin; Man in the Arena: Tom Brady, which earned a 2022 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Documentary Series; and Netflix's The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady, a 2024 Emmy nominee for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).