News: Jimmy Johnson, NBA, CFB, Deion Sanders

(Fort Benning, Ga) - Sport’s personalities Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw, and Curt Menefee broadcast live from The Maneuver Center of Excellence Nov. 11, 2018 at Fort Benning, Georgia. The live NFL Fox Sports Sunday broadcast from Fort Benning is in honor of Veterans Day. (U.S. Army photos by Markeith Horace, Fort Benning Maneuver Center of Excellence photographer.)

At least one member of the Fox NFL Sunday cast will be working remotely for now. Plus: TNT plans to go with a different set of announcers for round one of the NBA Playoffs; college football uncertainty will have no bearing on ESPN’s Monday Night Football decision; Deion Sanders has a new gig.

Jimmy Johnson not traveling to Fox pregame show

Fox NFL Sunday analyst Jimmy Johnson will not appear in-studio “for the time being,” he announced Thursday. Johnson, who at 77 is in the age group at greatest risk of COVID-19, said he will contribute to the show remotely. He had already taken on a reduced role over the past two years, appearing only on the pregame show before flying home and ceding his seat to Tony Gonzalez for halftime and postgame reports. [Johnson/Twitter 8.13]

No Harlan, Eagle, on first round of playoffs

Kevin Harlan, Ian Eagle and Reggie Miller, who along with Stan Van Gundy combined to call every NBA restart “seeding game” on TNT, are not scheduled to broadcast any games during the first round of the NBA Playoffs. Brian Anderson, Spero Dedes, Joel Meyers and Bob Fitzgerald are set to serve as play-by-play voices during the opening round, with Chris Webber, Greg Anthony, Jim Jackson and Van Gundy as analysts. [Related: 2020 NBA Playoffs TV Schedule]

In a podcast appearance last month, Harlan said that following his first round break, he is scheduled to return for the second round. Notably, he also said that he had to turn down the chance to work this year’s Western Conference Finals, as CBS was unwilling to let him miss NFL assignments. Eagle, who also works CBS NFL games, would likely face the same conflict. [Turner Sports PR]

No change to MNF plans even if college season canceled

Even if the fall college football season is canceled, ESPN does not plan to deviate from its yet-to-be-announced plan to install Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese as its new Monday Night Football team, the New York Post reported this week. ESPN had originally considered moving its lead college team of Chris Fowler and Kirk Hersbtreit to MNF if the college season was not played.

If there is no college season and the NFL elects to move some games to Saturdays as a result, Fowler and Herbstreit would reportedly be in line to call those games, assuming ESPN wins the rights to any.

The status of the college season is in flux after the Big Ten and Pac-12 chose to cancel their fall seasons this week. The Big 12 announced Wednesday that it plans to begin its fall football schedule on September 26 and the ACC and SEC have given no indication yet that they plan to punt on the fall. ESPN is not currently scheduled to air any games until Navy-BYU on Labor Day. [NYP 8.10]

Sanders leaves NFL Network

NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders has departed to join Barstool, it was announced this week. Per the New York Post, Sanders turned down a contract extension from NFL Network that would have paid him just half of his current salary. In his new role, Sanders will launch a podcast and contribute to a Sunday morning NFL show.

Sanders had been with NFL Network since 2006. [NYP 8.12]

Ratings: MLS is Back, PBC, Hard Knocks, women’s golf

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 3

Nate Johnson says:

6 years ago

So on my previous comment, I did have a few blocks like I normally do when I post on here. After I sent it in and it showed me the preview of how it would look, no blocks was shown, just a consecutive lines of what I typed. Never seen that happened before. This post will be in blocks, but I can’t guarantee if it will honor that.

Anyway, I wanted to post twice on this article because it mentioned the status of College Football at the current moment. I was born and bred in the Southeast region. I still currently live here in that region, even though once I get my career going after completing my Masters, I am opened to move anywhere in this country regardless of region and honestly this COVID situation. I have relatives from all over this country and I ask questions about how life is where they at. I’ve met people from all over this country and even this world and heard experiences from their eyes and mind on where they came from or reside at. I seen resources on history and modern day standards on how each region goes. So bottomline, as a Southeast guy, I never lived under the rock or ignored hearing other people view of points that is different than mine.

With that said, College Football is celebrated nationwide, but is still a regional sport. From the regional aspect, I am certain that every region in regards to College Football was influenced by external factors more than internal. It’s about appeasing a base at the end of the day. To me there is no correct decision on what each Power 5 Conferences chose to do for their Fall Sports. Obviously if an outbreak spreads within the Big 12, SEC, or ACC program it will be National news and those that were in support of the B1G Ten and Pac-12 decision will say see they were wrong and they should shut down season. On the opposite side, if no programs in the Big 12, SEC, or ACC has an outbreak then those in support of those conferences choosing to play football will let the B1G Ten and Pac-12 supporters know about it. What would missing from those is that either one got lucky or another didn’t get lucky. So what is important that we need to get out of this is that we hope no outbreak occurs within a a program, but more importantly that we continue to educate ourselves on these matter and practice the safest protocol possible. Going back and forth on what’s right or wrong isn’t going to solve much.

I had a conversation with my older brother who is an avid sports fan like me, that told me he was in agreement with the B1G Ten and Pac-12. In that conversation he made it cleared that he wants College Football to be played. He made it cleared that he would watch College Football if they do play. However, he felt there’s so much uncertainty on this virus that could affect people a decade or two from now that it’s best to not put the student-athletes in harm. I disagreed with him because of the fact that many players want to play and that I’m sure the Power 5 players did their part in uniting to express they want to play while also letting those that don’t want to play under these conditions to not lose scholarship or eligibility. We both went in detail on these matter and still felt we was okay with what side we was on. Bottomline is that we want College Football to be played. We understand the seriousness that is going with this virus. We just see differently on whether things could be managed correctly during the season, especially if they’re not in a bubble like atmosphere on campus. We also agreed that one side shouldn’t tell another side whether if they were correct or not.

So all in all, I can only hope this is the breaking point of the Power 5 Conferences leaders and its fans/supporters to find common ground on how to work together going forward. It’s unfortunate that there is already poor leadership from the NCAA to bring that influence onto the Conferences. Obviously, it doesn’t help when the POTUS gets involved in the matter like this, but at the end of the day I can only hope that those who sides with the Big 12, SEC, and ACC can show empathy to the players, staff, and whoever else is affected and feeling discouraged by not watching their favorite team or alma mater in the B1G Ten/Pac-12.
Nate Johnson says:

6 years ago

Primetime will be missed on the NFLN. He was a treat to that station. NFLN, in my opinion, best days were in the later part of the 2000s decade, but no matter the year or role Primetime had, he never disappointed.

I guess now that it’s official MNF has its 2020 announce team, I have to say I’m a bit skeptical on how this works. I like Steve Levy when he returned to College Football, but not on the level of the upper tier names of a Nessler, Fowler, or Tessitore when he was calling games on College Campuses. Levy is in an upper tier position now. I’m not a big fan of Brian Griese, but I felt he worked well with Todd McShay during College Football. I guess we will see how he does working without him and during an NFL game. There’s so much hope for Riddick. I believe he wanted the MNF job once Gruden left for the Raiders. I haven’t been a huge fan of his studio analysis or him always taking up for the NFL, but I guess it will be interesting on if viewers will enjoy some of his takes throughout the year.

On one article on here, I bluntly said that Brian Anderson will call the WCF. However, on that article I didn’t account Anderson’s assignment with the Milwaukee Brewers. So I felt that Anderson would still call the WCF, with a loophole that Harlan or Eagle could help out. From Harlan’s quote, it seemed like he wanted the WCF, but didn’t want to balance that with NFL games on Sundays and Mondays (remember he calls MNF games on Westwood one radio). That’s his choice, because Chris Fowler in years past balanced calling Tennis US Open and College Football Opening Weekend games. Also, Joe Buck has balanced calling NFL games and MLB Postseason games in October. I understand they have bosses to tell them what to do, but I’m sure Turner could’ve worked with on him calling WCF games since he is the most familiar voice in the NBA (I argue more familiar than Marv Albert and Mike Breen since he’s the voice of the NBA 2K video game series) and also the fact that the NBA had a policy where reporters could return to the bubble from doing other sporting assignments.

I’m still on the fence on rather Anderson will the call the WCF in its entirety. Seems like Turner has options beyond the guys that have NFL games to do on CBS. Joel Meyers and Bob Fitzgerald are heavy on basketball, on the regional station level, but they’ve done games nationally so maybe this could be an opportunity as Anderson would perhaps have to balance calling games for the Brewers and the WCF.
- Samuel says:
  
  6 years ago
  
  Brian Anderson leaves the Brewers to do national assignments constantly. Heck, he calls regular season and playoff games for TNT in April and May during baseball season. I don’t think there would be a conflict there. He’s clearly the top choice above Meyers and Fitzgerald because he’s known nationally and he actually works for Turner. It seems like he may replace Marv as the top guy eventually so this would be a good way to get him into the conference finals before inevitably taking over down the road.