Two of ESPN’s highest-profile analysts have left the network for coaching positions.
Lead ESPN MLB analyst Bobby Valentine has ended his second short stint with the network after accepting the vacant position of Red Sox manager. Valentine had been with ESPN since 2009 and spent the 2011 season as part of the three-man Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team.
Like Bill Parcells, Valentine tends to use ESPN as a brief pit stop on the way to another coaching gig. His previous run with the network lasted all of one year — 2003 — before he left for a position as manager of Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines.
In other news, Urban Meyer left his brief stint as an ESPN college football analyst when he accepted the open Ohio State University head coaching job. Meyer had only been with ESPN a few months, and did not even finish out his only season with the network.
(Valentine news from New York Times; Meyer news from Sports Illustrated)
