“There’s no real great magic to anything that we’ve built here,” Portnoy said. “....We look for talented people and we give them absolutely no direction…. We literally tell them – ‘Do whatever you want’ – and you can see how passionate they are about it.”
“We’ve been clear to anyone who is interested that we are very willing to be flexible here and be creative in terms of this expansion,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in an interview.
Vilma worked on ABC's college football studio team before joining Fox Sports in 2020 and is now paired as a game analyst with Kenny Albert. Payton coached the former linebacker from 2008-2013.