The seemingly unlikely prospect of Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit moving up to Monday Night Football is reportedly becoming more realistic.
ESPN is planning to use its lead college football broadcast team of Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit on Monday Night Football games if the college season is canceled or postponed, Front Office Sports reported Monday. Fowler and Herbstreit have been consistently floated as dark horse contenders for the MNF booth, which last season was occupied by Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland.
Fowler and Herbstreit have no previous history of calling NFL games, though Herbstreit has served as an NFL Draft analyst in recent years.
It was not clear whether Fowler and Herbstreit would return to the college game if it returned for a normal 2021-22 season, or whether a move to MNF would instead be for the long haul.
If the coming college season is played as scheduled, the expectation is that Fowler and Herbstreit will remain in their current positions, and that ESPN would go with some combination of Steve Levy, Dave Pasch, Pat McAfee, Louis Riddick, Dan Orlovsky and Brian Griese.
Per the same report, Fox is likely to move its lead college analyst Joel Klatt to its #2 NFL broadcast team if the college season is not played. Klatt would fill a vacancy created by the departure of Charles Davis to CBS.
[News from Front Office Sports 6.15]
