Ron Jaworski’s name has been included in some reports about ESPN’s recent round of layoffs, but Jaworski himself says he doesn’t know if he’s done at ESPN or not.
Jaworski appeared on a podcast with Matt Mosley and Ed Werder and said he isn’t sure if he’s going to be part of ESPN’s NFL coverage in 2017.
“I wish I could give you a definitive answer but I don’t have one,” Jaworski said. “I’m absolutely very grateful and thrilled to have worked at ESPN for 27 years. I still may continue to work at ESPN. I do not know what the future is going to hold. I still have a contract with them until May 31st of 2022, and if they choose to want to use me in some other areas, that is being talked about with my agent basically as we speak. So I’m a guy in limbo right now. But I do want to continue some broadcasting. I love what I do.
I still maintain my office at NFL Films and the film wonk that I am, I try to give the audience something that they normally don’t get. It may be a little bit drilled down football, but I think there’s far too much football on TV that doesn’t scratch the surface and I try to drill down and give the viewers and the listeners something they don’t get anywhere else.”
Jaworski has long served as one of the analysts on NFL Matchup. ESPN has confirmed that Matchup will return in 2017, but there’s no word on who the analysts will be.
“The Matchup show was on the air before I started at ESPN. If I do it or not in the future it will still be a great show,” Jaworski said. “There was a time when people said, ‘The fans don’t care about Xs and Os.’ That is bull. People care about football.”
People care about football analysts, too, and ESPN still hasn’t told people who the network’s analysts will be this year. Jaworski might be on the air, but right now he’s in the dark.