Gruden Signs ESPN Extension, To Do College Fball
UPDATE: ESPN Senior Director of Communications Bill Hofheimer email to SbB on Gruden extension announcement: “Jon is committed to MNF for multiple years and his decision to sign this extension is a clear indication of that. He will not be seeking any coaching positions for the foreseeable future. We expect to have him here at ESPN for a long time.”
Key part there are the words “forseeable future.” How long that is, no telling.
ESPN announced this morning that Jon Gruden has signed a multi-year extension with the network to continue with Monday Night Football will also adding college broadcast duties.
Gruden will appear on ESPN’s NFL Draft and Super Bowl week coverage, among other platforms, and he will call the 2010 NFL Pro Bowl in South Florida on January 31, 2010. Gruden will serve as an analyst for ESPN Radio’s 2010 Rose Bowl and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) title game broadcasts, where he will team with Tirico, and he will be part of SportsCenter coverage leading up to the ESPN on ABC telecasts of both games.
The material news is that Gruden will now branch out to the NFL Draft and college football. I’m sure putting Gruden on those ESPN radio games will help the ESPN sales department sell national ad spots for those games, but for the broadcast’s sake, I would’ve preferred a guy who has done college all season. Todd Blackledge, Jesse Palmer and Craig James would’ve be better, with Todd McShay as third wheel.
The news of the contract extension is fine and good, but if an NFL team wants Gruden as its coach bad enough, you know it’ll figure out a way to buy Gruden out of his ESPN deal. Read more…














