Longtime ESPN voice Dave Pasch is now joining the company exclusively, exiting his role as the voice of the NFL Cardinals.
ESPN announced Thursday that it has reached a multi-year contract extension with Pasch, who will now work exclusively for the company in a role that will for the first time include NFL games. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic previously reported that Pasch was a contender to serve as a secondary play-by-play voice on ESPN’s NFL slate, which this season expands to include the seven games carried by the now Disney-owned NFL Network.
ESPN lead college football announcer Chris Fowler has been the network’s secondary NFL voice in recent years, but the expanded schedule — heavy on international games — would conflict with his college football duties, Marchand reported. Previous secondary voices have included Steve Levy, Beth Mowins, Chris Berman, Mike Greenberg and Brad Nessler.
Details of Pasch’s NFL role will be announced “in the coming weeks,” ESPN said Thursday. Other contenders for the position, per Marchand, had been Levy, Mike Monaco and Jets voice Bob Wischusen.
Pasch has been with ESPN since 2003 calling NBA, college football and college basketball games. He will continue on those roles, though one imagines his college football duties would have to be reduced. He has been one of ESPN’s top college football voices and part of the company’s College Football Playoff roster, working the Cotton Bowl on television and Peach Bowl on radio this past season. Last month, he called an NBA conference final, working Knicks-Cavaliers on ESPN Radio.
As part of his exclusive ESPN deal, Pasch has stepped down as the radio voice of the NFL Arizona Cardinals, a position he had held since 2002. The Syracuse grad also called football and basketball games for the school from 1999-02 and worked Buffalo Bills preseason games in 2001.
