When Jason Kelce announced/confirmed his retirement last week, my first thought was “Let the sweepstakes begin.”
My second thought was that I have absolutely no idea how to put Kelce’s sports media free agency into context.
Sure, there have been highly coveted sports media free agents before — just recently, Peyton Manning and Shaquille O’Neal come to mind. But it’s hard to recall a sports media free agent who has possessed the same combination of Hall of Fame credentials, A-list level fame, connection to his sport’s audience, and on-camera readiness that Kelce lays claim to.
The only comparison I could think of was Charles Barkley.
Upon retiring in 2000, Sir Charles was about as sure of a thing in sports broadcasting as there was. And yet somehow, he managed to exceed expectations as the star of TNT’s Inside the NBA, which is largely considered the standard for sports media shows.
But for as great as Barkley is — and he is great — he has also had plenty of help.
For one, the studio is the perfect platform for him. While Barkley has some experience calling games and has done an admirable job when doing so, it’s clear he’s at his best when he’s not limited by the restraints and interruptions of clocks and whistles.
For another, his co-hosts have been cast perfectly. Ernie Johnson is the ultimate on-air point guard, Kenny Smith is an effective role player and for as big of a star as O’Neal is, there is no questioning who Inside the NBA‘s franchise player is.
If Kelce is going to have the same success, he’s going to need a similar setup.
That will be easier said than done in the NFL, which seemingly suppresses breakout stars on its studio shows. Rather, programs such as The NFL Today, Fox NFL Sunday, and NFL Sunday Countdown have relied on the camaraderie of their casts to the point where some of the best players and most unique personalities in league history have even seemed interchangeable.
That’s not to say that there aren’t strong individual analysts or even good overall shows. But there isn’t an NFL equivalent to Inside the NBA and there has yet to be a football personality on par with Barkley.
Kelce could change that. But he can’t do it alone.
As I wrote when his impending retirement was first reported in January, the most obvious fit for the 36-year-old is NBC. With all due respect to Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Devin McCourty, and Chris Simms, Football Night in America is lacking in star power when it comes to its analysts. And if Kelce has the itch to call games, Cris Collinsworth is probably closer to retirement than Tony Romo, Tom Brady, and Kirk Herbstreit are. (Not that networks have ever been shy to replace their top analysts when a shinier toy comes along… just ask Greg Olsen.)
Pair Kelce in the studio in host Maria Taylor and, in my opinion, you’d already have the best host-analyst combination of any NFL pregame show in recent memory. From there, you could fill out the rest of the cast in any number of ways. But the key would be letting Kelce’s star shine.
The other elephant in the room: whoever lands this Kelce will probably have the best shot at landing the next and even more famous Kelce. And while Travis has already hinted at a Hollywood future, as Michael Strahan has shown, you can remain plenty busy and still maintain a regular gig on a Sunday pregame show.
The idea of the Kelce brothers taking an NFL pregame show to New Heights is certainly intriguing, but at this point, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, we need to see the NFL media embrace what makes them great. And that starts with giving Jason a platform worthy of his unprecedented appeal.
