This Tom Brady “magic” left several Fox viewers scratching their heads on Sunday.
Before the 1 p.m. slate of games got underway, the “Fox NFL Sunday” crew of Howie Long, Michael Strahan, Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson welcomed Brady into their Los Angeles studio via green screen from Santa Clara, Calif., where the seven-time Super Bowl champion will call the 49ers’ clash against the Chiefs later in the afternoon.
“With the magic of television, there he is,” Menefee said as Brady, 47, appeared on the broadcast, albeit at a slightly larger size.
It didn’t take long for perplexed viewers to flock to social media to try to digest what they were viewing.
“Okay…greenscreening Tom Brady into the FOX NFL studio looks ridiculous,” the Empire Sports Talk Podcast account posted on X. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
“Why is Tom Brady being projected via hologram on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show?? Kind of weird,” the X user @_gloryglory13 wrote.
The user @ambowski called the segment “weird as f–k.”
“Tom Brady is 100% green screened into this NFL Fox segment and it’s weird as f–k,” the viewer posted.
Brady, in his first season as Fox’s lead NFL analyst, will call the Super Bowl 2024 rematch with on-air partner Kevin Burkhardt.
The future Hall of Famer interviewed Patrick Mahomes as part of a separate Fox package Sunday, with the Chiefs quarterback looking to get another victory against the 49ers following Kansas City’s overtime 25-22 win in February’s championship contest.
Although the virtual Brady only stuck around for a few minutes Sunday, his presence left quite an impression on his colleagues.
“The technology is really cool nowadays, what you can do, except for the scale was a little off, Tom Brady is not bigger than me, I will tell you that right now, America,” Strahan said.
The Giants legend stands at 6-foot-5 while Brady is 6-foot-4.
The former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback made his anticipated debut as an NFL broadcaster last month after agreeing to a monster 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox in 2022.
Brady retired in 2023 and recently added minority owner of the Raiders to his already prolific résumé.