From Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand, one of ESPN’s mainstays, Mike Tirico will be leaving ESPN and Monday Night Football and departing for NBC. In the short-term, Tirico will be the new voice of NBC’s half of Thursday Night Football. In the long-term, Tirico can fill so many roles. With Al Michaels and Bob Costas in the sunset of their roles as voice of Sunday Night Football and Olympics, respectively, in the long-term, one has to expect that Tirico can become the successor for Michaels and Costas down the line.
Even though Tirico has been with ESPN since the 1990’s, he’s only 49 and has a long career ahead of him. And not only can he host and call football, but Tirico can call basketball (college and NBA), golf (The Masters and Open Championship), tennis (Wimbledon and U.S. Open) and other sports.
Atlanta, GA – August 8, 2013 – Georgia Dome: (L to R) Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden of the during a preseason game
(Photo by Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)
Tirico began at ESPN as a SportsCenter anchor and then moved to other roles as a studio host, then became play-by-play on college football and basketball. Then took over for Brent Musburger on the PGA on ABC and the Open Championship. In 2006, he began calling Monday Night Football on ESPN, first with Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser, then with Kornheiser and Ron Jaworski, then Jaws and Jon Gruden and now just Gruden.
As for who will replace Tirico on MNF, Ourand said fellow Syracuse alum Sean McDonough would be in line to join Gruden.
Mike Tirico with NBA analyst Hubie Brown (courtesy ESPN Images)
This sets off a domino effect at ESPN for his other roles as Tirico over this decade has called the aforementioned MNF, Big Ten basketball with Dan Dakich, the NBA with Hubie Brown, hosts early round coverage of the Masters with Curtis Strange, and tennis. With him filling so many roles at ESPN, it starts a jockeying for position among announcers who will want to replace him.
As for NBC, Tirico will also be able to fill multiple roles including golf where he could return to his familiar perch at the Open Championship and and the Ryder Cup.
