Matthew Berry left ESPN earlier this summer after 15 years to seek a new adventure and he found one at NBC.
Berry appeared on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast and was asked why he left ESPN. Berry began by saying how much ESPN means to him. “The reason, Jimmy, you care about me and the reason that anyone is listening to this interview is due to the power of those four letters”.
Then Berry opened up about the multiple reasons that convinced him to jump to NBC which included not having to move his family and being able to use his expertise on multiple tentpole events for the network, but a major key that helped secure the deal was NBC’s plan to feature Berry prominently on its NFL coverage.
“NBC said to me, ‘We want to put you on Football Night in America,'” Berry recalled, “and not as a token, not as like… you’ll pop on with ‘here’s some sleeper’ for thirty seconds. You’re going to be an integrated part of this cast. You’re going to do multiple segments.”
Berry really liked that idea because he mentioned how he wasn’t featured on ESPN’s NFL coverage and this would be a welcomed change.
“I mean, it’s Football Night in America,” Berry perked up. “It’s the second-highest rated show, not sports show, the second-highest rated show in all of television. Second only to the actual game itself. There was a lot of other things at NBC… they recruited me and it was really, honestly flattering… [but] you had me at Football Night in America.”
