A little over a year since he was fired from CHGO for allegedly assaulting a coworker, former Chicago Bears offensive lineman Olin Kreutz has returned to 670 The Score as a football analyst.
Kreutz will discuss the Bears and NFL topics throughout the season and will also co-host the radio station’s Bears pregame and postgame shows.
The news was announced Thursday afternoon on 670’s Parkins & Spiegel Show.
We're excited to announce Bears great Olin Kreutz is returning to 670 The Score as a football analyst. https://t.co/97o6NtJLWT pic.twitter.com/q0j4Hmelf8
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) July 20, 2023
“He’s one of the best analysts that I’ve ever talked to in this business, period, in any sport,” host Danny Parkins said. “The guy watches film, he cares, he’s honest, he has connection but he also will talk about the people that he has the connections to, unbelievable stories about his era of Bears football. He makes us all better football fans when we get to hear him talk.”
Kreutz initially started working for The Score in 2015 when he joined the Bears’ post-game show. In 2019, he joined NBC Sports Chicago as a gameday analyst, and in 2022 he joined CHGO, a Chicago sports media startup. His time there was short-lived, however, following an incident in which he assaulted fellow CHGO personality Adam Hoge during a staff meeting.
“According to a source, before a taping of their Bears podcast on Monday, Hoge and a producer were talking about Twitter reactions to Kreutz jokingly walking off the taping of Friday’s draft-night podcast in response to the Bears not drafting an offensive lineman in the second round,” reported The Athletic’s Jon Greenberg in May 2022. “In regard to those comments, Hoge made a sarcastic remark about Kreutz being too negative about the Bears’ draft. At that point, Kreutz had just entered CHGO’s loft space and heard Hoge’s comment, yelling at him in response. Kreutz then charged at Hoge while he was seated on the video set. Hoge’s chair tipped back and Kreutz grabbed him by the neck before eventually letting go. According to a source, Hoge tried to defuse the situation and even suggested going through with the taping of Monday’s podcast.”
Kreutz also responded to CHGO’s official announcement on Twitter with a quote from Mike Tyson that seemed to strongly imply he was not sorry for the incident.
https://t.co/AvMgc6imQx pic.twitter.com/mQlSDDJUP6
— Olin kreutz (@olin_kreutz) May 2, 2022
Last July, Kreutz told the Chicago Sun-Times that he wouldn’t be returning to his job at NBC Sports Chicago either, saying he was told that “there are workers in there who are uneasy about me coming in.” He also added that he was getting ready to leave CHGO when the incident happened.
“I had already decided that my time was up at CHGO just because of some things that I thought were unprofessional in the way they ran their business. That was my decision,” Kreutz said. “And like I told my kids, man, you do something like that, you pay the penalty. You take the punishment, and then you try to become a better person and try to learn from every situation.”
Kreutz said Thursday that he returned to 670 The Score after a year off when he “made a mistake and got thrown out for a little bit.”
The six-time Pro Bowl center spent 13 seasons with the Bears and 14 years total in the NFL before transitioning to the media world.
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About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.