Who is Kevin Burkhardt? Meet the Fox broadcaster calling Super Bowl 57
Kevin Burkhardt finds himself at the center of the Super Bowl 57 broadcast on Sunday.
Much fuss has been made about the position of color commentator for the Fox broadcast team. Whether Greg Olsen received his flowers or Tom Brady loomed, there was no shortage of headlines surrounding the broadcast crew.
This Sunday, however, Burkhardt has his big national coming-out party. Burkhardt anchored the No. 1 team throughout 2022 after Joe Buck and Troy Aikman retired from ESPN, and he’s done an admirable job of filling Buck’s shoes alongside Olsen.
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… But please don’t ask him about Brady.
“The reality is that I’ve been asked in every media interview I’ve done, and I mean that openly or confidentially, I didn’t think of Tom Brady as the broadcaster for ten seconds,” Burkhardt said in a recent interview.
To his point, he has this weekend’s big game to call. Here’s what you should know about the #1 Fox play-by-play man.
Who is Kevin Burkhardt?
A native of Bloomfield, NJ, Burkhardt is a graduate of William Paterson University. His big break came with SNY, the Mets’ TV home, where he served as the station’s on-field and clubhouse reporter from 2007-2014. He also occasionally stepped in for play-by-play duties.
In 2013, Burkhardt joined Fox as the network’s play-by-play man on Team No. 4, joining John Lynch. Since then it has been a steady rise to the No. 1 chair for Burkhardt. He set out along with a few other broadcast partners, including former Fox analyst and current 49ers GM John Lynch, as well as Charles Davis and Daryl Johnston.
With Joe Buck and Troy Aikman departing for ESPN before the start of the 2022 season, Burkhardt was named to the No. 1 team alongside Greg Olsen, where the pair is stuck, earning critical acclaim in the process.
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Kevin Burkhardt’s contract details
Burkhardt currently makes around $4 million as the network’s top play-by-play voice, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. While a nice character, that pales in comparison to some of his peers on other networks.
Joe Buck reportedly makes between $60 and $75 million for ESPN over five years (anywhere between $12 and $15 million per season). Al Michaels is reportedly making $11 million from Amazon. CBS CEO Jim Nantz reportedly earns $6.5 million.
If Burkhardt continues his breakthrough, he’s sure to break the bank in the years to come.