Jon Champion, the legendary soccer commentator who has been with ESPN in some form since 2009, is joining NBC Sports to call matches for the 2023-2024 Premier League season, according to a new report.
According to World Soccer Talk’s Christopher Harris, Champion will call the “highest profile Premier League match every week in the Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET timeslot.”
That role opened up earlier this month when Martin Tyler stepped down from Sky Sports’ UK coverage of the Premier League, which then led to Peter Drury taking the coveted spot. Drury had been the lead voice for NBC’s U.S. coverage of the Premier League, which he himself took over from Arlo White this past season.
In the initial announcement about Drury’s move, it was expected that he would “continue to present for the US audience” but that he would “focus on one game a week for the broadcaster, which would be on Sunday, Monday, or midweek.”
Champion called MLS matches for ESPN between 2019 and 2022 before they lost the broadcasting rights to Apple TV. However, per Harris, he will continue to call FA Cup games “as well as other big matches when possible such as cup competitions (English League Cup) and major friendlies” for the Worldwide Leader.
The Drury move might have felt like a blow to NBC Sports’ coverage when it happened, but you could now make the case that they have the strongest commentators of any US broadcaster and are now on par with many others around the world.
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.