When you think of Jeff Fisher, you probably think of 7-9 jokes and not anything remotely interesting that has come out of his mouth. But the former Titans and Rams coach could be talking a whole lot this football season, a year and a half after the Rams kicked him to the curb.
The Sporting News is reporting that Fisher is in talks with Fox Sports for an NFL analyst job, either in the studio or the booth. Adding Fisher to Fox NFL Sunday, which hasn’t significantly changed in a decade, would be something of a jarring move from Fox, while adding him to Fox NFL Kickoff would theoretically make more sense (though there would be some overlap in the “former coach” role, given Dave Wannstedt’s placement on the show since it launched in 2013).
(UPDATE: the New York Post reports Fisher will be working at least one game for Fox, the September 30th Jets-Jaguars tilt alongside Dan Hellie)
A booth job would make more sense for Fisher and Fox, presumably using him in the role they wanted to use Jay Cutler in last year. Cutler was supposed to join Fox’s #2 team of Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis, but ended up bailing on the TV job before calling a regular season game and signing a one-year deal with the Miami Dolphins. That would be a good way to ease Fisher into the booth, and would also be similar to the CBS plans to use Bruce Arians this season. Arians will reportedly be joining Greg Gumbel and Trent Green in CBS’s #3 booth this fall.
Then again, this is all hypothetical at this point. Fisher hasn’t joined Fox yet. And from 2016 to 2017, Fox played musical chairs with many of their broadcaster pairings, so Davis might not even be paired with Burkhardt at all, let alone in a trio with Fisher.
I’m a bit cool on Jeff Fisher, Ace Broadcaster, for a couple of reasons. First off, he never showed much of a personality when he was coaching, and also didn’t show any analytical or insightful qualities that would indicate that he would be a good broadcaster. Second, Fisher was fired by the Rams a year and a half ago, and all rumors since then have indicated he’s been holding out for another coaching job. Why should anyone be optimistic about a guy that didn’t seem to want to do this job until it was apparently he wasn’t going to get the job he wanted?
And third, I liked the Burkhardt/Davis team last year, and wouldn’t be too thrilled with them breaking them up or adding a third voice to the mix (for the record, nearly all three person booths are terrible). Fox adding a name like Fisher to their coverage sure seems fine on paper, but when you consider how he would actually fit in with their NFL coverage, the potential addition doesn’t seem to be a great one.
