The recently retired Jason Kelce is headed to ESPN to be part of its “Monday Night Football” pregame show, sources briefed on the move told The Athletic.
Kelce, who just retired after what is considered a Hall of Fame career with the Philadelphia Eagles, was sought after by multiple networks, but is slated to land on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown.”
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ESPN declined to comment.
Kelce and his brother, Travis, have a popular podcast called “New Heights.” Jason, 36, has been interested in media and drew interest from NBC, CBS and Amazon, among others. He and his wife, Kylie, already had a pre-existing relationship with Amazon as they did a documentary series called, “Kelce,” which followed him around during his final season. Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night set is already pretty packed. NBC and CBS were both interested in adding Kelce to their Sunday desks.
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The Disney upfronts are two weeks away and Kelce is likely to be a part of it. ESPN also has picked up Bill Belichick, the other biggest NFL media free agent of this offseason. Belichick will appear weekly on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Mondays during the NFL season. McAfee will pay Belichick to be on his program, which is licensed on ESPN.
Meanwhile, a Belichick deal with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions is slated to happen that would include Belichick becoming a semi-regular guest on the Manningcast. ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” is hosted by Scott Van Pelt and features analysts Marcus Spears and Ryan Clark. The Athletic previously reported that another of the analysts on the program, Robert Griffin III, was unlikely to return.
Required reading
- ESPN pursuing Jason Kelce in latest ‘Monday Night Football’ pregame shake-up: Sources
- As Jason Kelce retires, teammates tell stories from his and Travis’ college days at Cincinnati
(Photo: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)
