Cris Collinsworth has never been bashful about extolling the virtues of Aaron Rodgers, and on Sunday night he went so far as to pitch the four-time MVP for the broadcasting career Rodgers has repeatedly sworn off.
With three minutes and 10 seconds remaining in NBC’s broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field — the stadium where Rodgers spent 18 seasons before his itinerant final act with the Jets and Steelers — Collinsworth abandoned the game in front of him to divulge the contents of a private dinner with Mike Tirico. The centerpiece of that meal, Collinsworth told a national audience, was a spirited debate over what kind of broadcaster Rodgers would become, and Tirico was audibly blindsided by his partner’s willingness to share it.
“That was supposed to stay at dinner,” Tirico quipped.
Collinsworth offered a quick apology, then insisted the cat was already out of the bag and teased that he hadn’t even gotten to the juiciest part of the conversation. He kept that part to himself and turned to tennis instead, holding up John McEnroe as the model for what Rodgers could potentially become in a booth.
“The bottom line is, like I always thought that John McEnroe, when he was a tennis announcer, you knew from what he said as a player, like he didn’t withhold anything, right? Officials and whatever, he was gonna let you know exactly what he felt, which is great for a broadcaster, and I think Aaron would fall into that same category,” Collinsworth said. “We know at the very least we’re gonna know what he’s thinking.”
Rodgers, who has said 2026 will be his final season, is set to retire just as two of the NFL’s top analyst jobs could open up.
CBS placed Tony Romo on leave after his July arrest in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, and on Oct. 2 the network announced that it and Romo had mutually agreed to part ways. J.J. Watt, who drew strong reviews as a rookie alongside Ian Eagle in 2025, will stay with Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson in the lead booth, but CBS has only committed to that arrangement through the end of this season.
Then there’s ESPN. Rodgers has taken more shots at the network than almost anyone who appeared on its air every week, yet the seat beside Joe Buck on Monday Night Football could be open after this season if Troy Aikman’s run comes to an end.
Buck and Aikman, partners since 2002 at Fox and then ESPN, both entered the 2026 season in the final year of their contracts, but ESPN signed Buck to a six-year, $108 million extension last month while leaving Aikman’s future in limbo. Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported that tension between the longtime partners erupted into an argument before last Monday’s Bills-Rams game at SoFi Stadium, and Aikman made no effort to refute it when he appeared on KTCK The Ticket in Dallas the following Thursday. Later that night, Aikman told sports media writer Jimmy Traina that his departure from ESPN appears inevitable.
“It just seems to be where they’re going — that they’re gonna go in a different direction because there’s been no talks, no contract negotiations,” Aikman said. “We’re in a Super Bowl year. The Super Bowl is Feb. 14. My contract ends in March. It just doesn’t seem logical that if they were gonna keep me, something wouldn’t be in place before that.”
John Ourand reported for Puck that his best sources expect Greg Olsen to succeed Aikman in the Monday Night Football booth next season, with Olsen’s Fox contract also expiring and the former tight end eager to reclaim a No. 1 job after Fox handed his seat to Tom Brady in 2024. Fox Sports president Brad Zager told Richard Deitsch the network wants Olsen for the long haul, but an Olsen defection would vacate yet another prominent seat in Fox’s No. 2 booth. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand floated Peyton and Eli Manning as a potential ESPN remedy, Pat McAfee has categorically ruled himself out, and Rob Parker lobbied for Russell Wilson to inherit Aikman’s seat beside Buck.
Prime Video, meanwhile, reportedly extended Kirk Herbstreit, though the particulars of that arrangement remain nebulous.
That confluence leaves CBS and ESPN staring at potential vacancies in their marquee booths just as one of the most decorated and divisive quarterbacks of his generation walks away from the game. Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes argued this summer that CBS could pursue Rodgers as Romo’s long-term successor, positing that Watt might ultimately serve as a placeholder the way Olsen did for Brady at Fox. Contes pointed out that Fox lured Brady into the booth with a 10-year, $375 million deal despite Brady harboring little enthusiasm for television as his playing days dwindled, and that CBS, now under the stewardship of Skydance’s David Ellison following the Paramount merger, may be far less squeamish about Rodgers’ politics than its previous regime.
Few athletes of Rodgers’ stature have been so eager to broadcast whatever crosses their mind. Rodgers used his weekly appearances on The Pat McAfee Show to raise questions about nanobot-filled vaccines causing “turbo cancer,”nearly joined Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential ticket, and saddled ESPN with a public relations nightmare through his comments about Jimmy Kimmel and the Jeffrey Epstein list.
That baggage has left executives apprehensive, though, that Rodgers could use three hours of national airtime the way he used his Tuesdays with McAfee, moving from third-down tendencies to Tartarian Empire conspiracies without missing a beat.
Marchand observed last year that nearly every quarterback on the all-time top 20 list either went into television or had the option to, and predicted Rodgers would be the rare exception. Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy reported that executives and talent agents privately feared Rodgers would come across as a pompous know-it-all, with one source conceding Rodgers possessed the acumen to be a great analyst while branding him insufferable. Colin Cowherd took the contrarian view, forecasting a Charles Barkley-style renaissance for Rodgers on television.
The biggest obstacle remains Rodgers himself. As far back as 2020, he told McAfee he had no appetite for becoming a TV analyst and would rather mentor high school quarterbacks; two years later, he quipped that becoming a Sherpa held more allure than either. In March, Rodgers called into McAfee’s show unannounced, largely to address the attention surrounding his wife after Fox sideline reporter Jen Hale partially confirmed her identity despite never having met her. Before he hung up, Rodgers also ruled out a television career, invoking the “Usual Suspects” villain who disappears without a trace.
“When this is done, it’s Keyser Söze,” Rodgers said. “You won’t see me. I’m not doing TV. I’m not going to be out and about.”
Rodgers reinforced that message in September during an interview with Adam Schein on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio, telling Schein he hopes to be supporting a pregnant wife as they start a family by this time next year. He also touched on reconciling with his estranged family, while acknowledging that being “Uncle Aaron” to his brother’s children made him and his wife more eager to have kids of their own.
“I am not gonna be making a lot of appearances or statements,” Rodgers told Schein. “I’m looking forward to a life of quiet after 22 years in the pros and three in college.”
Rodgers’ track record invites some doubt, but with Aikman’s contract expiring in March and CBS yet to name a permanent successor to Romo, at least one network figures to test the 42-year-old’s resolve with a Brady-sized offer before he recedes into retirement.
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