Tom Pelissero has a new home for football season.
The ex-NFL Network employee will join Netflix’s NFL coverage as a sideline reporter and insider across the streamer’s entire NFL slate, which kicks off with the International Series game from Australia between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. Pelissero is also set to co-host The Ringer NFL Show and contribute regularly across the network’s broader football podcast lineup, including a standing weekly appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
Tom Pelissero is joining Netflix Gameday as a sideline reporter and NFL insider for the full slate of games this season, starting with 49ers vs. Rams in Week 1 from Melbourne.@TomPelissero will also co-host The Ringer NFL Show and contribute across The Ringer’s NFL podcasts,… pic.twitter.com/H0lkioTqAr
— Netflix (@netflix) August 17, 2026
ESPN laid Pelissero off last month despite a full year still remaining on his NFL Network contract, as part of the same round of cuts that also claimed Ryan Clark, Cam Newton, Bart Scott, Karl Ravech, David Lloyd, and Stephania Bell. Pelissero joined NFL Network in 2017 and became one of the network’s top reporters and insiders, but with ESPN and NFL Network already employing the likes of Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport, the newly acquired NFL Network was always going to be one of the places where the new-look ESPN saw duplication.
Having a year left on his contract didn’t necessarily mean Pelissero was locked into sitting the entire year out, though. Some sort of agreement with ESPN had to precede Netflix’s hire, either a buyout of the remaining contract or a negotiated settlement, given that ESPN remained liable for the money regardless of Pelissero’s next employer.
Pelissero joins a Melbourne broadcast team the streamer had already assembled for its Week 1 opener, with Elle Duncan, Michael Irvin, Nick Foles and Clay Matthews III on the studio desk, Noah Eagle and Luke Kuechly calling the game, and MJ Acosta-Ruiz reporting from the sideline.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.