The NFL TV free agency carousel keeps turning, and Dan Orlovsky will join Steve Levy and Louis Riddick Jr. in ESPN’s No. 2 NFL TV booth, The Post has learned.
ESPN declined comment.
The position is significant because, while ESPN has signed Joe Buck and Troy Aikman as its No. 1 team, Levy and Riddick will call a handful of games this year and then around five per season beginning in 2023. Levy and Riddick also received contract extensions, cementing them on NFL games.
Orlovsky was pursued by Fox Sports, according to sources, where he would have fronted a five-day-a-week NFL show and done some games on Sundays, though he was not a candidate for the top jobs, according to sources. Kevin Burkhardt has replaced Buck as Fox’s No. 1 game-caller, while Greg Olsen is the leading candidate to be his partner, with Tom Brady’s arrival as an analyst to be determined.
Instead of moving, Orlovsky will stay as an ESPN workhorse, appearing on “NFL Live,” “First Take” and “Get Up,” while continuing to call college football games and now the NFL.
Orlovsky, 38, essentially replaces Brian Griese, who teamed with Levy and Riddick on the No. 1 “Monday Night Football” team the past two years. With his contract up, Griese left to be the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach.
An NFL quarterback for more than a decade, Orlovsky made 12 starts in his career. He was most famous for running out of the back of the end zone in 2008 during his first career start for the Lions. A Connecticut native and standout quarterback at UConn, he joined Bristol, Conn.-based ESPN in 2018 after he gained some acclaim breaking down plays on social media.
The first game with the crew of Levy, Riddick and Orlovsky will be the second week of the season. “Monday Night Football” has a doubleheader that week, and Buck and Aikman are expected to call the Titans-Bills game on ESPN. Levy, Riddick and Orlovsky would be on the Vikings-Eagles game on ABC.
Score one for Stephen A.
Stephen A. Smith was pretty vocal in saying that he was the one that thought Max Kellerman should no longer be on “First Take.” Smith said he favored a rotating group of debaters. The goal of these debate shows is attention, which has increased as folks like Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, JJ Reddick and, this week, Patrick Beverley, have joined.
Beverley, who has been anointed a future star NBA television analyst, has roasted the Suns’ Chris Paul all week. You normally don’t see that from current players, but Beverley has always been outspoken. He understands the game and has played it perfectly this week. Post-Kellerman, host Molly Qerim, has also shown more personality, at times entertainingly telling Smith to simmer down. Smith was pretty outspoken that he wanted “First Take” to be undisputedly his show and, the way these programs are judged — by ratings (up 22 percent as compared to last year) and social noise — it has worked.
Clicker Book Club
The new book, “Hebrew Hammer,” by Joseph Wancho, is about Al Rosen, who was an All-Star third baseman and MVP with Cleveland primarily in the 1950s. He later went on to run teams, including the Yankees, and was named an Executive of the Year in 1987 while with the Giants. He was, as the title indicates, Jewish. Papa Clicker, my dad Herb Marchand, said this interesting biography deserves 4.15 out of 5 clickers.