Robert Griffin III may have exited ESPN unceremoniously, but that hasn’t caused the retired quarterback to sour on his now-former employer.
Earlier this month, ESPN surprised everyone by firing Griffin and Sam Ponder three weeks before the start of the NFL season. On Monday afternoon, Griffin joined The Jim Rome Show and was asked about his ESPN departure.
“I love football, but I loved the experience I had at ESPN more than anything,” Griffin said. “Getting the opportunity to be on Monday Night Countdown with the legendary broadcast crew of Suzy Kolber, Steve Young, Booger McFarland and Adam Schefter was a dream come true. Then, to be part of the revamping of it with Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears, I just truly enjoyed those experiences.”
Griffin went on to speak highly of his time calling college football games alongside Bob Wischusen and noted he was scheduled to be in a booth with Mark Jones this season. It was previously reported that Louis Riddick would be replacing Griffin to work with Wischusen this season. And while that’s technically true, Griffin revealed he was scheduled to work with Jones this season, not Wischusen. With ESPN deciding to fire Griffin days before the college football season kicked off, Roddy Jones will now be working alongside Mark Jones.
“I’ll miss the people there that I got a chance to work with and I wish them the best moving forward,” Griffin continued. “For me, and what the future holds, it’s just whatever God has in store for me. I’m just going to keep walking by faith and not by sight and continue to just cover the game the way I know how to cover it, with the excitement and the enthusiasm. That is just me being my true, authentic self. There is no act here. I’m just always gonna be that guy.”
ESPN blamed Griffin’s firing on cost-cutting measures, although their now-former NFL and college football analyst told Rome he couldn’t discuss the reasonings behind his exit. Griffin had two years remaining on his contract and will continue to receive his annual seven-figure salary from ESPN until it runs out or another company reaches a buyout agreement.
Griffin still has his podcast, which he owns and will continue. But as for the prospect of joining another company, Griffin said his ESPN departure won’t deter him from seeking other opportunities with legacy sports media.
“If you don’t own anything, then you’re always going to be a slave to something else. I just want to make sure that we own what we’re doing, we have a good time doing it, and as far as legacy media goes, I’ve got no bad blood with legacy media,” Griffin said before noting the team he worked with at ESPN remains near and dear to his heart. “But there could be teams at Fox, NBC, CBS, Amazon, Netflix or anywhere else that I would enjoy working with as well. I’m not gonna close the door on anything.”
[ The Jim Rome Show ]
The post Robert Griffin III opens up after ESPN firing: ‘There is no act here.’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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