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Randy Moss (left) and Matt Hasselbeck squeeze in a selfie from the L.A. Coliseum on Aug. 13.
Photo by: SCOTT CLARKE / ESPN IMAGES
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The first on-air words out of
Randy Moss’ mouth as
ESPN’s newest NFL analyst was a call for heads to roll.
“Someone needs to be fired,” Moss said early this month when he learned the Pro Football Hall of Fame game would be canceled due to poor field conditions. “Somebody needs to lose their job over this field.”
Welcome to the new “Sunday NFL Countdown” — a show that promises to be younger and hipper than last year’s version of ESPN’s long-running NFL pregame show. In the offseason, ESPN replaced 76-year-old Mike Ditka and 65-year-old Tom Jackson with a pair of 39-year-olds in Moss and Charles Woodson and a 40-year-old in Matt Hasselbeck. Also gone from the Sunday show are Cris Carter (50) and Keyshawn Johnson (44); Ray Lewis (41) will not return on Monday nights.
Add in two 30-something producers in Matt Garrett and Chad Minutillo who will oversee the show’s production, and the millennial takeover for ESPN’s top studio show becomes even more apparent.
ESPN will not replace Chris Mortensen, who is battling throat cancer, on its Sunday morning studio shows. Fellow NFL analyst Adam Schefter will continue as an on-air reporter, and ESPN will slot a space on “Sunday NFL Countdown” for Mortensen when he is able to return.
For ESPN, the staffing decisions have less to do with the age of the analysts and more to do with hiring people who are more current with today’s NFL.
“You can make the assumption about age,” said Seth Markman, ESPN’s senior coordinating producer. “But to me it’s more about people that have been fresh out of the game. If there was a coach who left the game last year after coaching for 10 years and he was older, that wouldn’t have mattered. To hear Randy Moss talking about playing with Tom Brady or Charles Woodson talking about playing with Aaron Rodgers — we really haven’t had that in a while. Not a lot of shows have had that.”
Changes aren’t new to the Sunday show, which is one of ESPN’s most-viewed studio shows. Last season, 17 regular-season telecasts averaged a little over 2 million viewers — a number any cable network would be happy to post.
Every season, ESPN introduces tweaks to the show, such as last year when it moved from a three-hour to a two-hour show. But this year’s edition, which still will be anchored by the 61-year-old Chris Berman, features the biggest on-air changes the show has ever seen.
The new analysts are raw. Markman laughed about some rehearsals when the new guys made basic broadcasting mistakes, such as looking into the wrong camera.
“We’re not going to turn them into broadcasting students here,” Markman said. “We’re telling them to just go out there and talk honestly about the NFL and have some fun.”
Markman has stressed to the new crew that they should focus less on breaking down game strategy and more on developing opinions and telling stories. Markman referenced a Woodson anecdote where he avoided tackling Packers running back
Eddie Lacy in a preseason game. Markman also highlighted Hasselbeck’s stories about his former teammate, Colts quarterback
Andrew Luck.
“The guys we used to have were a great group, but after a while, because they don’t know the players as well personally, it became a little more X’s and O’s than we wanted it to be,” Markman said. “With this group, I’ve stressed that we don’t want to X-and-O people to death. We want this show to be relevant with strong opinions from these guys. We want them to talk about the things that people in the league are talking about. We’ll do a little more on the opinion side and a little more speaking on personal knowledge.”
The analysts’ workload will pick up, too. Moss, Hasselbeck, Woodson and Trent Dilfer will appear on “Sunday NFL Countdown” from Bristol and will travel to the “Monday Night Football” venue to appear alongside Suzy Kolber and Steve Young on the Monday night pregame show.
While Markman says he feels energized with the additions of Moss, Hasselbeck and Woodson, he acknowledged how weird it will feel to have a show without Jackson sitting next to Berman. The two have worked together on “Sunday NFL Countdown” since 1987.
“We’re going to miss something without Tommy,” Markman said. “We should miss something. He’s a hall of famer. He’s a legend. It’s going to be weird that first Sunday not to have him out there as the voice of reason and someone to lean on.
“For a couple of years now, he had really been thinking strongly about retirement,” Markman continued. “I personally have had a few different discussions with him going back two or three years where I convinced him to stay.”
As for Berman, his contract ends after this season and rumors have circulated that he’s preparing to step away from the host’s chair into more of an emeritus role on the show.
“There have not been any decisions made about Berman [beyond this season],” Markman said. “I look at it as this year, and he’s our guy. He’s our quarterback. If any decisions come down the road, we’ll address it then. But I’ve been completely focused on getting this group together and having the best season as possible.”
John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.
