Our long national nightmare is over. We’re only eight days away from the NFL, the unquestioned king of sports TV sports, returning for the new 2026 season.
But before we get to NBC’s telecast of the season-opening Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl rematch on Sep. 9, let’s dive into the 13 most intriguing on-air personalities heading into the new season:
Tony Romo:
CBS Sports is facing a virtually unprecedented situation heading into the new football season. Rather than basking in the glow of its NFL rating success last year, boss David Berson must “assess” when or if he’ll bring his No. 1 analyst back from indefinite leave.
On Tuesday, Romo pled no contest to OWI and other charges, admitted he has an alcohol dependency and said he’s working with a team of doctors. Romo also said he wants to return to CBS at some unspecified date. But will CBS take him back? Given the damage to its image, the Tiffany network could use a morals clause to wriggle out of the remaining $72 million and four years on Romo’s deal. And I keep thinking about Berson’s warning that it’s “very important” to consider the impact of Romo’s arrest and humiliating police-cam video on CBS’s brand. Was that the rattle before the strike?
Kirk Herbstreit
While attention has focused on the Romo soap opera, there’s been sneaky big news on ESPN’s top college analyst. During an interview with Bussin’ with the Boys, Herbstreit said he’s poised to be a TV free agent for the first time in 30 years. All three of his current deals with ABC/ESPN’s Saturday Night Football, ESPN’s College GameDay, and Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football expire at the end of the 2026 football season, said Herbstreit.
At 57, Herbie has the craziest travel schedule in the business. Even he admitted his preparation for calling pro and college football is brutal: “It’s hard to do all three, man.” I can see the face of college football voluntarily giving up his Prime gig, but holding on to ABC and ESPN, where he loves working with Pat McAfee on College GameDay.
Al Michaels
The ageless Al Michaels is still going strong at 81 years old. But if Herbstreit steps away from TNF after a five-year run, I could see Michaels going with him. That would open up two of the sweetest jobs in NFL media. The competition would be fierce for both.
My money would be on Greg Olsen moving from No. 2 analyst at Fox to the new No. 1 analyst at Prime. But he could have his hands full if Travis Kelce or Sean McVay retire and enter sports media after the season.
Dianna Russini:
It’s looking like Dianna Russini’s comeback is not a matter of if, but when. Will the former senior NFL reporter for The Athletic come back in her former guise as an insider? Maybe. But my guess is the entertaining Jersey native joins the brash Barstool Sports as more of a personality than a reporter. You can count Russini’s former Athletic colleague Michael Silver among those who think we’ll be hearing from her soon.
“I do think she’s going to be back, probably not as an insider, at least in the short term,” said Silver on The Tom Tolbert Show. “But I think she’ll be back in this realm, probably talking about football and other things pretty soon.”
Pat McAfee
All eyes will be on McAfee as he joins the cast of Scott Van Pelt’s Monday Night Countdown studio show. Will McAfee dominate the show? Or be a team player? That will just be the regular-season appetizer, with McAfee delivering the main course on Super Sunday with his own “Field Pass” of Super Bowl LXI.
Elle Duncan
The former ESPN SportsCenter anchor seems increasingly comfortable in her key role hosting virtually all of Netflix’s sporting events. She’s poised to lead coverage of another huge event, with Netflix streaming the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia on Sept. 10 between the Super Bowl favorite Rams and the 49ers.
Troy Aikman and Joe Buck:
Like Herbstreit, Aikman and Buck’s respective ESPN contracts are up after this season. But the word in Bristol is chairman Jimmy Pitaro wants to sign the duo through the sports media giant’s second Super Bowl in 2031. Why not? Right now they’re the best in the business. ESPN loves that its NFL broadcast booth went from worst to first.
Shannon Sharpe
Stephen A. Smith has repeatedly said he wants his old sparring partner back on First Take. Sharpe’s humor was a key feature of the weekday show. The smart money says ESPN brings Sharpe back sometime this football season.
Jon Gruden
The former Monday Night Football color commentator recently returned to the broadcast booth for the first time since 2018, calling a Bucs preseason game with Ronde Barber. Gruden was once ESPN’s highest-paid talent. Networks/streamers could do a lot worse than giving Chucky another shot at calling NFL or college football games.
Ryan Clark
Getting pink-slipped while on the air at ESPN made the former Emmy winner one of the sad sack stories of the year. But Clark is already bouncing back, signing a multi-year deal with Netflix for his popular talk show, The Pivot.
Luke Kuechly
Netflix threw the dice this off-season, naming the Hall of Fame linebacker its No. 1 game analyst. Kuechly only played eight seasons in the NFL. And these jobs usually go to ex-QB’s. But everybody seems high on Kuechly. We will see.
Jameis Winston
If there’s one lock for a TV job as soon as he hangs up his cleats, it’s the Giants’ backup QB. As it did previously with Greg Olsen and Michael Strahan, Fox Sports has been giving him on-air reps while still an active player. Winston was a big hit during Fox’s coverage of Super Bowl LIX.
