Jason McCourty filled in admirably after Nate Burleson departed Good Morning Football on NFL Network in 2022. But he won’t be following the show to Los Angeles as it evolves significantly amid NFL Media cuts.
In an interview on the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast released Wednesday, McCourty explained his reasoning for leaving the show and the lessons he learned cohosting Good Morning Football.
“Beyond selfish ambition within the industry to continue my career, I couldn’t come up with one good reason to move my wife and three kids out of New Jersey,” McCourty said. “Quality of life, it wouldn’t feel like as a husband and as a father, not just a cohost on a show, how I was going to keep all those plates spinning at the same time, was also going to be a challenge.”
McCourty added that NFL Network had options for the third and fourth years of his contract. So with the first two years up and him not continuing with GMFB, the network exercised its right to move on from him.
McCourty will continue to call NFL games for CBS this fall, but had to adjust quickly to a show he came to love doing.
“Even above us, it was a shock to them trying to figure out how to keep the show going,” McCourty said. “For them, they looked at it like, ‘Hey, L.A. is a way to keep our show going and keep it Good Morning Football. So the hope I think was for all four of us to go and pick the pieces up and put it all together and figure it out. But yeah, it was a shock to all of us. In this industry, I’m quickly finding out, no different than football, you don’t know what’s behind Door No. 2.”
Just as when he replaced Burleson, who joined CBS This Morning in 2021, McCourty is optimistic the show will keep its momentum and come back strong with its new format. Anchor Jamie Erdahl and original panelist Kyle Brandt are expected to make the move to L.A. with the show.
“The one realization I’ve had is everybody is replaceable,” McCourty said. “We all like to think of ourselves in this very unique way and how special we are and how talented we are … I’m not naive to think they can’t find somebody better than me and keep the thing going.”
[Sports Illustrated on YouTube]
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.