There certainly have been a host of Hall of Fame, superstar football players who have made the transition to broadcasting. Think Frank Gifford, Randy Moss, Steve Young, Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw, and this upcoming season, Tom Brady. Very often, however, it is the good, but not exceptional football players, who make the best analysts. These are the guys who needed to be coached. They were not game changing talents, just skilled players who worked for everything they got in the NFL. One of these guys is Harry Douglas.
A third-round pick by Atlanta in the 2008 draft, Douglas played 10 seasons at wide receiver in the NFL, seven with the Falcons and three with the Titans. Currently, he is a regular contributor to several ESPN programs and cohosts the Freddie and Harry Show alongside Freddie Coleman on ESPN Radio.
Now, I’ll be honest, it’s taken some time for Douglas to grow on me in his role as an analyst on various ESPN programs. Early on, I found his thoughts disjointed and not very clearly stated. I knew he had knowledge, but the execution of his communication was lacking. Lately, however, Douglas has remarkably raised his TV game.
His style of mixing humor, strong opinions, and flat-out courage has made him a sought-after guest on highly rated ESPN shows like First Take and Get Up. Douglas is a hybrid of a new brand of football commentator – men who have honed and refined the gumption and toughness they had as athletes and are kicking tail across multiple media platforms. Douglas combines the cool of Nate Burleson, the fearlessness of Ryan Clark, the X’s and O’s of Dan Orlovsky, and the watchability of Marcus Spears.
He has absolutely no problem hanging with gigantic television personalities like Shannon Sharpe, Christopher Russo, Mike Greenberg, Bart Scott, and even Stephen A. Smith. This was no more evident than on the July 22 edition of First Take where Douglas gave a tour de force performance epitomizing his current rise in the business.
Before he even said a word on the show, you could tell that Douglas is serious about broadcasting. In addition to the obligatory laptop that most studio analysts now feature, Douglas had a spiral notebook, a pen, and a yellow highlighter at his side. It was as if he was taking notes in a history class. Douglas has literally become a student of broadcasting, and he gets a gold star for improvement.
In discussing Ravens’ QB Lamar Jackson’s failure to win a Super Bowl, Douglas didn’t just talk about Jackson himself, he talked about the backdrop and time frame in which Jackson now plays. In doing so, he made an astute cross-sport comparison to basketball. Douglas stated that Michael Jordan was the reason that a lot of all-time NBA greats such as Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and others did not win a championship. They were playing in an era of the greatest of all-time.
Douglas noted that similarly, Lamar Jackson is now playing in the era of Patrick Mahomes making it very difficult to win a championship. This dissertation showed the ease with which Douglas moves from his comfort zone in football to hard and accurate historical facts about other sports. A lot of other football analysts have trouble making this jump.
Douglas also said that the advantage Jackson might have this year is a closer, someone who can end games on his own, namely, newly acquired running back Derrick Henry. Good point. On ESPN’s Get Up, Douglas dropped some similar reality regarding Jackson. He reiterated that the quarterback position is under the most scrutiny, and that Jackson will never escape the criticism until he wins the Super Bowl.
On that same episode of Get Up, Douglas provided an in-depth analysis of Chiefs’ rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. He presented a solid scouting report, saying that Worthy could get in and out of breaks, run routes, has premiere speed, and great hands. He also intimated that the Chiefs, who ranked 25th in explosive passer rating last season, will improve that number this year largely because of Worthy.
Moving back to First Take, Douglas again showed his depth of knowledge talking about the US Olympic Basketball team’s close call one point win versus South Sudan. Douglas offered a timely quote saying, “Comfortability drives complacency.” He also shared strong points on how the absence of Kevin Durant hurts the Olympic team.
Douglas continued his thorough examination stating that in international competition, the US is facing teams that rely less on athleticism and more on skill set. He used Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić as examples. This was a football guy doling out real talk on hoops and trading worthwhile words with two basketball pundits in Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst.
When discussion transitioned to the Dallas Cowboys, Douglas was unafraid to jump alone into the fire of defending Dak Prescott. He stated that if a team does not have a real quarterback, they cannot win in the NFL, and that Prescott is a top 5 NFL quarterback. Amid Smith’s arguments, Douglas stood strong in his assertion.
First Take host Molly Qerim made the point that backup QB Cooper Rush played well when Prescott was injured and perhaps could succeed Prescott as the starter in Dallas. An incredulous Douglas replied, “Please, y’all spare me with the nonsense.” In an interesting point, Douglas opined that if he were Prescott, he would not want to get a new deal done right now, but instead, would prefer to bet on himself, have a great season, and then be an unrestricted free agent.
Douglas then turned up the volume and went toe to toe with Smith in discussing Cowboys LB Micah Parsons’ poor performances in the playoffs. Smith questioned Douglas comparing Parsons’ postseason failures to the playoff successes of ex-Rams DT Aaron Donald, but Douglas countered by saying that Smith had once compared Parsons to Lawrence Taylor. Smith eventually relented, saying, “I got you.”
The decibel and debate level further heightened later in the show when ESPN college football guru Paul Finebaum joined the panel to talk about expectations for Alabama with new head coach Kalen DeBoer. While both Smith and Finebaum predicted that Alabama would be a solid playoff team, Douglas pulled no punches when analyzing the Crimson Tide.
He said that DeBoer is being well compensated and should get no pass just because he is succeeding the legendary Nick Saban. Douglas also said that in the SEC right now, he has Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, and Missouri ahead of Alabama. Smith vehemently disagreed, but Douglas did not back down and started naming key players on the Missouri squad none of whom Smith could even identify. Having clearly done his homework, Douglas then humorously exhorted Finebaum to coach Smith up on his knowledge.
In short, Douglas knows his stuff. He deftly combines feelings and facts creating an atmosphere of entertaining and excellent debate. Douglas may not have the name recognition of his more seasoned colleagues, but he is coming on mighty and strong with personality, preparation, and pugnacity.
John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
