While ESPN College Football analyst Greg McElroy was a senior at Alabama in 2010, he was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which goes to the top senior scholar-athlete in football. Even though McElroy did not win the award, it ended up leading him closer to the career he has now.
McElroy was a guest on the Gramlich & Mac Lain podcast and said that after not winning the award, he was at an happy hour event after the gala, had a beer, and ended up meeting some notable ESPN personalities who asked him to talk about Auburn before the national title game that year.
“Those that were also at the bar were Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit. Lee Fitting and Michael Fountain were also there. After a couple of beers, we were sitting there and saying you just played a good game against Auburn, why don’t you come to Phoenix and talk about it? A first-hand perspective of competing against Auburn.”
“It went really well. They said you were very prepared, we really enjoyed your takes, everything you said about Auburn and we think our viewers gained something from this. Would this be something that you would consider coming and doing now? I said no, I really need to scratch the NFL itch.”
McElroy played for only 3 seasons in the NFL with the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals. While his career didn’t last long, ESPN kept asking him every year about when he was ready to join the network. Then, while he was in Cincinnati, the SEC Network was about launch and that’s when McElroy decided to become an analyst:
“After year 3, they said we are about to launch the SEC Network, do you want to be a part of that? I had just torn my PCL. I was under contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. I knew that I could grind out maybe 2-3 more years, but I’d be better off going and pursuing something I knew I could hopefully do for 30 years. It was a difficult decision to leave the game at that point, but I knew I still had a piece of the game with me in going back to the level of football I aligned with the most.”
For McElroy, he is just happy to have some form of football in his life. He did think he would miss being a quarterback, but he has a home to talk about the strategy of the game.
“I love football strategy. I love football theory and not having that in my life would be insanely difficult. I’m so grateful for ESPN.”
Even though McElroy would have loved to have defeated Auburn in the Iron Bowl, it ended up launching the former Crimson Tide QB into a successful career as an analyst.
