The first week of the 2024 NFL season is nearly in the books. After over 200 days since the last regular season week, we had a jam-packed football Sunday, which also saw the return of NFL RedZone.
The channel, which is part of the NFL's Sunday Ticket package now on YouTube, prioritizes teams that are near the red zone with the hopes of showing viewers a scoring play. The feed bounces around somewhat chaotically, but host Scott Hanson does an admirable job of analyzing and keeping track of all the action happening simultaneously.
RedZone is the busiest in the early kickoff window, with more games being played. In the midafternoon game, Hanson takes a backseat other than big moments that deserve some extra attention. Hanson interjected some personal insight on Sunday when he felt an announcer didn't cover something with the right flair.
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What did Scott Hanson say about Tom Brady?
Brady, who spent 23 years playing quarterback in the NFL, hung up his cleats in 2022 for the second, and likely final, time. He transitioned into an analyst role in 2024 and made his regular season debut on Sunday, calling the Dallas Cowboys-Cleveland Browns game.
It was Brady's first time covering a regular season game, so naturally, it was expected he may need to warm up to the new gig. Many would say he fell short of expectations, which is where Hanson comes in.
Dallas was looking at a 66-yard kick to go into halftime, which would have tied an NFL record in distance. Brady rather nonchalantly mentioned that, and then the kicker made it, but the kick was nullified due to a penalty.
This pushed the kick back to a 71-yard kick, and Cowboys place kicker Brandon Aubrey initially lined up for it. Brady immediately talked about the returner and Dallas' need to worry about him. A timeout was called, and RedZone cut to another game, but Hanson said, "Brady has got to get more excited than that in the booth.'
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Scott Hanson apology
Clips of Hanson's jab at Brady hit social media. This allowed fans to negatively remark on Brady as an analyst as it fueled their perceptions that he wasn't doing a great job his first time out.
Hanson realized what was happening and took to X to issue an apology because he didn't know the context in which people would take his comment. He was just making a light-hearted joke from one analyst to another.
Hanson wished Brady luck in this new career endeavor.
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Scott Hanson salary
NFL RedZone is part of NFL Network, which Hanson has been a part of since 2006. While official numbers aren't readily available, the estimation is that Hanson makes between $125,000 and $150,000 in his role.
The other big news about Hanson is that his current contract with the NFL Network expires at the end of the year. He is expected to garner big money wherever he lands, and while he doesn't own the rights to RedZone, he is also expected to bring a form of the show to whoever employs him.