All-NJ team: Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen are FOX Sports' No. 1 NFL broadcasting duo
Kevin Burkhardt broadcasted the biggest games of Greg Olsen's banner high school football career in New Jersey.
Now Burkhardt and Olsen will be calling the biggest game of the sport together, and a whole lot more.
FOX Sports officially revealed Tuesday that Burkhardt and Olsen were being elevated as the network's No. 1 NFL broadcast tandem, replacing the pairing of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who left FOX to broadcast "Monday Night Football" on ESPN.
Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi will return as sideline reporters.
The announcement comes at a critical time for FOX as it will broadcast two of the next three Super Bowls, including Super Bowl 57 set for Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The network also has Super Bowl 59, scheduled for Feb. 9, 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Burkhardt and Olsen worked together last season as the network's No. 2 team to rave reviews, with the latter making the transition from Pro Bowl tight end to the booth.
How long their partnership lasts beyond 2022 depends on the playing future of Tom Brady, who reportedly inked a 10-year, $375 million deal to join Burkhardt in FOX's No. 1 booth. Brady ended his brief retirement and announced he was returning to the game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Since joining FOX, Burkhardt has been the play-by-play caller for about two dozen auditions with prospective analysts. Of that group, he considered Olsen, whose high school games he broadcast as the sports director of WGHT 1500 Radio in Pompton Lakes, in a class of his own.
Burkhardt said two years ago that he believed Olsen was destined to become the next big thing in broadcasting. Now they'll be together for at least one more season, and in front of some of the biggest television audiences anywhere.
“Last season, Kevin and Greg showed viewers their undeniable chemistry and ability to call football at an elite level,” FOX Sports president of production/operations and executive producer Brad Zager said. “We can’t wait for fans to see what they’re going to bring to America's Game of the Week [on FOX], the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl LVII.”
Burkhardt's journey has certainly taken its share of memorable twists and turns. After graduating from William Paterson University in 1997, he took over as sports director at WGHT Radio, a 1,000-watt, daytime-only AM station in Pompton Lakes. He helped turn the department there into a varsity version of WFAN with fellow fledgling broadcasters who enhanced high school sports coverage in North Jersey.
Unable to break through at a larger station after six years, a frustrated Burkhardt left WGHT, put his broadcasting dreams on hold and became a car salesman for Pine Belt Chevrolet in Eatontown.
For eight months, Burkhardt sold cars and sent his tapes to radio stations in New York and elsewhere, believing that his break would eventually come.
When one did, things happened fast. He worked for CBS Radio doing updates, moved to WFAN as the station's New York Jets reporter, and his biggest break yet came with SNY during New York Mets games, which provided the ideal platform for Burkhardt to spread his broadcasting wings and put his personality on display.
Within a decade, Burkhardt went from selling cars and nearly out of the broadcasting business to the national stage. The Bloomfield native has been tabbed to replace Buck, one of the most recognizable and lauded play-by-play voices in sports.
At his side for the Super Bowl in Arizona next February will be the star tight end whose games he called at Wayne Hills High School.
The top NFL broadcasting team for FOX Sports was born, raised and made in Jersey.
Art Stapleton is the Giants beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Giants analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and sign up for our NFC East newsletter.
Email: stapleton@northjersey.com
Twitter: @art_stapleton
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen, both from NJ, are FOX Sports new NFL duo
