Kurt Warner wanted a job in NFL broadcasting after he left NFL football, and he finally has found one.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports that Warner will work as a game analyst with FOX during the 2010 season.
It had appeared that Warner would come up empty in his search for TV work, prompting speculation/rumors in May that he’d return to the game for another year. Since then, Warner has worked several AFL games on NFL Network. He apparently has done well enough to catch FOX’s eye.
Also joining FOX as a game analyst will be former Falcons and Seahawks coach Jim Mora. We’ll say as to Mora what we’ve said as to guys like former Raiders and Bucs coach Jon Gruden. If Mora plans to get back into coaching, he won’t be nearly as good as he could be if he doesn’t, since he’ll pull punches and mince words if he’s worried about pissing someone off.
Then again, Mora has never been bashful -- which we like. He riffed in 2006 on his willingness to quit his job in Atlanta if he could return to the University of Washington, and he said enough to later quit his job in Atlanta involuntarily. After being fired by the Seahawks after only one year on the job, Mora came unglued as to the front office and his replacement, at one point mouthing “Pete Carroll cheats” while on a radio show that was being videotaped.
So even though Mora has made clear his desire to return to coaching if he can stay in the Seattle area (in other words, grow eyes on your shoulder blades, Steve Sarkisian), maybe Mora will throw caution to the wind and be himself.
That said, we don’t recommend that he say on the air that he’d quit his job with FOX on the spot if he could work with another network.
Though FOX has yet to announce the full lineup for the coming season, Hiestand reports that Warner will be replacing former NFL quarterback Trent Green. Though it’s unclear whether Green jumped or was pushed, the message to all former coaches and players who get into broadcasting is clear -- every year, a new crop of coaches and players will be exiting the NFL and eyeballing the broadcast booth. So the challenge for each of them is to quickly become something more than the flavor of the month.