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With the success of Tony Romo on CBS last season, Fox and ESPN are both licking their chops and trying to land former Colts/Broncos QB Peyton Manning to head their broadcasting teams.
In a report by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, ESPN is “willing to back up the truck” and pay the future hall-of-fame QB an insane amount of money to join the network.
Before last season, Fox reached out to Manning to see if he would be interested in going into the studio or being a game analyst. As he has told all the networks annually, he did not want to become a broadcaster at that time. Fox will try again, but, at this point, it is ESPN that is being far more aggressive.
the words of one source, ESPN is willing to “back up the truck” for Manning, wanting to make a splash in replacing Jon Gruden as the analyst on “Monday Night Football.” Gruden was reportedly the highest-paid ESPN employee, making more than $6.5 million before leaving for a 10-year, $100 million coaching deal with the Raiders
Unfortunately for ESPN, Manning seems dead set on becoming an NFL executive.
A TV executive, who has spoken to Manning in the past about broadcasting, said Manning has never given off the full vibe that he wanted to be in the booth…
Manning has been approached multiple times about becoming a TV analyst since he retired, but has been reluctant.
Manning’s ultimate goal is to be like John Elway and have an ownership stake in a team, while running football operations, he has said.
With limited opportunities in the NFL we’ll see if Peyton is willing to go the Jon Gruden route and get paid a ton of money for a tv gig before getting a job in the league.