It’s almost impossible to fathom, but former NFL quarterback Alex Smith is now entering his fifth season as part of ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. And now he will be a part of the pregame show and ESPN’s wider coverage for many more years to come.
Smith played 14 years in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Washington Commanders. He was a three-time Pro Bowler and won Comeback player of the Year in 2020 in his last season playing in the league after returning from a devastating leg injury. Since his playing days concluded, he went directly to ESPN to work as a studio analyst.
On Tuesday, just weeks before the new season begins, ESPN announced a new contract for Smith. It will continue his role on Countdown and see him be a featured analyst for the network’s Super Bowl coverage. But also in the new contract is an expanded role for Smith that will see him take up more of a presence on ESPN’s daily coverage throughout the week.
Beginning this season, Alex Smith will begin to be featured on ESPN morning shows Get Up and First Take in addition to his work on the weekend.
Get Up and First Take are not hurting for NFL analysts with the NFL Live crew including Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark, and Dan Orlovsky regularly involved. Then there are even more voices like Damien Woody, Domonique Foxworth, Harry Douglas, and Jeff Saturday that are also featured prominently. In fact, it sometimes seems like the Sunday and Monday crew featuring the likes of Smith, Randy Moss, Jason Kelce, and more exist in a different universe.
But Smith’s entry into the daily world of ESPN comes at an opportune time as First Take has a Shannon Sharpe sized hole in its roster of personalities. ESPN parted ways with Sharpe earlier this summer after his sexual assault lawsuit was settled.
Smith doesn’t quite have the cultural cachet as Shannon Sharpe does, but he’s a solid, dependable, and well-liked analyst. And he’s someone who can be an ESPN mainstay for many years to come.
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