In a move that surprised a lot of people, ESPN laid off football analyst Robert Griffin III as well as host Sam Ponder just a few weeks before football season started. Griffin had two years left on his contract and clearly could not have seen this coming. Griffin did a little bit of a media tour as he appeared on shows to promote his new podcast and a paid promotion with the video game Call of Duty.
Appearing on The Jim Rome Show, Griffin was asked about his departure from the network.
“I can’t talk about too much of what happened or why what happened,” Griffin said. “I love football, but I loved the experience that I had at ESPN more than anything. Getting an opportunity to be on Monday Night Countdown with the legendary broadcast crew of, Suzy Kolber, Steve Young, Booger McFarland, and Adam Schefter was a dream come true. Then to be a part of the revamping of it with Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark, and Marcus Spears. I just truly enjoyed those experiences.”
“And then to be able to be in college football and call games with the legendary Bob Wischusen, the voice of the Jets and Kris Budden on the sideline. And this year I was going back with Mark Jones, Quint Kessenich…You know, guys that I consider family. I’m going to miss those guys. I’m going to miss the relationships and the people behind the camera because they don’t really get the love that they deserve…I enjoyed my experience. I’ll miss the people that I got a chance to work with and I wish them the best moving forward.”
Griffin was also on The Rich Eisen Show and was asked about the support he has gotten from fans and colleagues and what it makes him think about what is next for him.
“That showed me that this is something in a business that I should be involved in, and continue to be involved in, and you know, that’s why we’re going to be doing this,” he said. “This sign you see behind me, Out of Pocket with RG3, doing a podcast in that realm, and our first guest will be dropping here in a few days, so hopefully the fans will continue to support us, and have fun as we make our way through this tough time, but we’ll be back, and we’ll be back and better in no time.”
Rome asked Griffin about whether or not this experience with ESPN has soured him on legacy media such as radio and television.
“I think there’s pros and cons to everything,” Griffin said. “…Diversifying your portfolio is the best thing that you can do. And that would be my advice to all members of the media. At the end of the day, if you don’t own anything, then you’re always going to be a slave to something else. So, I just want to make sure that we own what we’re doing, we have a good time doing it. And as far as the legacy media goes, I’ve got no bad blood with legacy media. I think that there’s always going to be a future for legacy media. It might be a little bit different than what it is today and how it’s presented, but I’m not going to fight against that. I really enjoy working with people and being part of a team.
“So this team at Out of Pocket is a team that’s near and dear to my heart. But there could be teams at Fox, NBC, CBS, Amazon, Netflix, or anywhere else that I would enjoy working with as well. So I’m not going to close the door on anything.”
