Drew Brees has his first post-football career move set, despite still playing in the NFL. According to the New York Post, the New Orleans Saints quarterback has reportedly agreed to join NBC’s NFL broadcast team following his retirement, in what is being talked about as a potential move to groom a replacement for long-time analyst Chris Collingsworth.
The deal will see Brees start his broadcast career as an analyst during Notre Dame college football games, while also serving as a studio analyst on the network’s flagship studio show, Football Night in America, which airs before NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcasts. Then, the report continues, Brees would be groomed to take over the big job and replace Collingsworth whenever he decides to retire from the week-in and week-out analyst duties.
It’s also worth noting that Brees signals another failure by ESPN to sign a high-profile name for its own broadcasts. Reportedly, the Worldwide Leader in Sports threw around $6 million a year at Brees to get him to join, but he chose NBC — who is reported to have made a “competitive” offer, code for “good enough” — partly due to their succession plans.
It’s been a rather busy off-season for broadcasts, what with Tony Romo’s landmark analyst deal at CBS, the rumored failed trade of NBC’s Al Michaels to ESPN, and the overtures towards Peyton Manning. Brees’s deal isn’t quite to those levels, given both that he’s not an experienced analyst and that it won’t even kick in until he retires — he has a two-year deal with the Saints currently — but it’s a sign that networks are taking the upcoming negotiations with the NFL over TV rights seriously. With how much money there is in the most popular sport in the United States, that’s to no one’s surprise.
Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.
Read the full story at The New York Post
Whether you’re looking to get into shape, or just get out of a funk, The Charge has got you covered. Sign up for our new wellness newsletter today.
