It seems the Bill Belichick’s run as a frequent media personality is officially over.
The legendary coach, who took over as the head whistle for the North Carolina Tar Heels this offseason, understandably won’t have the time to keep up with the numerous media gigs he took up last year.
Belichick, during his year off between coaching in the NFL and now coaching in college, was a frequent presence on television. The six-time Super Bowl winning head coach held down a co-hosting role on Inside the NFL, made frequent appearances on The Pat McAfee Show, and, perhaps most notably, regularly contributed to ESPN’s ManningCast alternative Monday Night Football telecast alongside Peyton and Eli Manning.
Those ManningCast spots are coming to an end, according to Peyton Manning himself. In an interview with 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, Ohio during a pro-am at this week’s PGA Tour event at Muirfield Village Golf Club, Manning confirmed that Belichick would not be making regular appearances on his altcast this season.
“Obviously, [Belichick] seems busy right now coaching college football. So, he won’t be back this year.” Manning began. “He’ll be hard to replace, like, I thought his insight was great. But we’ll try to probably go back to, kind of, rotating guests and, you know, having coaches and players, which I always like their insight, but also the actors and musicians that, you know, the common criteria to be a guest is you gotta love football. And I love, and Eli and I both love, being around people who love football as much as we do in all different walks of life.”
It doesn’t look like Manning plans on reinventing the wheel with the ManningCast this season. But the show will certainly strike a slightly different tone without Belichick’s weekly appearances.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.