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. Multiple TV officials who have spoken to him believe that remains his long-term target, but Manning has not fully ruled out TV in the interim.
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.
In 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.
While lead play-by-player Sean McDonough is currently in place, ESPN executives have considered a total reboot of their Monday night booth, sources said.
If ESPN is unable to convince Manning to join the “MNF” booth, the network is planning to hold auditions for its internal candidates, a source said.
Meanwhile, Manning is the first person Fox wants to talk to about its Thursday night package that it just acquired for a reported $3.3 billion for five years. This weekend, Manning is scheduled to drive the pace car at the Daytona 500, which will be televised by Fox. Top Fox executives will be at the event.
Before settling on a lead play-by-player, Fox would like to have its analyst set. Gus Johnson is a candidate to be Fox’s play-by-player on Thursday night football. He currently is its lead college football and basketball announcer.
Both Joe Buck and Burkhardt work the MLB postseason for Fox and Sunday NFL games, which would make it logistically difficult to call Thursday night football.
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