Chase Daniel’s trajectory to becoming a sports media mainstay began with something called “Chase Chats” as the veteran NFL quarterback attempted to pass time during the pandemic. Daniel had already signed a three-year contract with the Detroit Lions but with the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 NFL season, he figured he’d throw his hat into the sports media ring.
Daniel had Nick Foles, Mitchell Trubisky, and Eliah Drinkwitz, the head coach of the Missouri Tigers—Daniel’s alma mater—on his live Facebook show, as he attempted to make a name for himself in the industry
He has since indeed made a name for himself. The then-Los Angeles Chargers’ backup quarterback joined NFL Network in-studio on NFL GameDay Final on Mondays each week following Monday Night Football last season, Prior to the start of the 2023 NFL season, NFL Network announced that the 14-year veteran quarterback would appear full-time as an analyst on NFL Total Access on Fridays at 7 p.m. ET, joining host Mike Yam and analyst Brian Baldinger.
But how did Chase Daniel become interested in sports media?
Daniel recently appeared on the Awful Announcing Podcast and revealed that it had a lot to do with those pandemic chats.
“That was really the first time I hosted a show and it went really well,” Daniel told host Brandon Contes. “I talked to Nick Foles…and we hit gold with it. The day before the episode came out, he had just gotten traded from Jacksonville to Chicago with Matt Nagy, and so it was the news of the week, of the month…And we had him on and we had him on for an hour and he was so open about everything.
“We put the episode out there, and within 24 hours it had gotten a million views on Twitter. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I’m not really into all the views and all these metrics, but I thought it was really cool. ‘We got something here.’ It was a lot easier than I really thought…In terms of have I always thought about media? It was either for me after a certain amount of years in the league, I was like, ‘Man, I really think I can coach. Like I really want to coach. I really, really want to coach.’ I think God put football in my life for a reason. I feel like I am an expert at football, and that’s something I wanted to continue my life with. It was one of two things. It was coaching and it was media. The more I thought about coaching, the more I thought about how that would affect my family life.”
Daniel added that he’s been asked about his future in the media for a while now.
He recounted a story from the Chicago Bears training camp in 2018. According to Daniel, two people within the Bears communications department—Adam Widman and Brandon Faber—came to him with a spoof that they thought he’d be really good at.
After training camp, Daniel went undercover and interviewed Bears players. He had on a bucket hat, sunglasses, and a Mitch Trubisky jersey.
“Dude, it was absolute gold,” Daniel told Contes. “If anyone hasn’t seen that. I mean, talk about viral. I was just being myself. I wasn’t trying to play it up, but Mitch Trubisky signing my jersey, Matt Nagy signing my jersey, like no clue who I am. I’ve done a lot of different things like that for a lot of different teams and I don’t think anything of it, but everyone in the media was like, ‘Dude, that’s gold. You’re really good at this stuff. You’re really good at telling stories. You’re really good at understanding what’s going on. And just through that, I thought, ‘Hey, I think this could be a lot of fun because I have a lot of experiences, but I also have a ton of stories.'”
Daniel has played for 8 of the 32 head coaches in the NFL, something that comes in handy now.
“I know a lot of people on a lot of different teams,” he said. “So, I have a lot of inside information that necessarily isn’t going to put anyone in a bad light, but also can tell people how it really is in the NFL.”
And with that knowledge, Daniel is open to transitioning into the world of in-game commentary.
“That’s something I’m really open to,” Daniel said. “I’m really open to maybe figuring out do I want to do just studio. Do I want to do some in-game analyst stuff? I really liken the in-game analyst stuff to exactly being a quarterback and exactly preparing like one…It’s a little bit more in-depth, but also you’re reacting on the fly, which is something I feel like I’m really good at. But I also feel like I’m really good in-studio in terms of just telling it how it is, analyzing so [anyone] at home can understand what the game of football is. I want to be a teacher of football, while also understanding that, ‘Hey, what I put out there is my brand and I want my brand to be authentic.'”
Daniel has spoken to and auditioned for all four major networks (CBS, FOX, NBC, and ESPN). He’s gotten what he described as “really good feedback,” but he’s happy that he’s been able to stay at home in California and spend more time with his family and his three children under six years old.
“I think it worked out really perfectly for me this year,” he said.
The full episode with Chase Daniel will be available this Friday. You can find the Awful Announcing Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.