A familiar face will be returning to ESPN, as Bill Parcells has once again been hired as an NFL analyst.
Parcells will appear on next week’s installment of Monday Night Countdown before the Jets-Texans preseason game and make regular appearances during the season. ESPN noted in its announcement that he’ll also work on the Monday Night Countdown opener, when two of his former teams, the Patriots and Dolphins, meet.
For most of the last decade, when Parcells wasn’t coaching or working in a front office he was an ESPN analyst. Although Parcells claims he’s really done in the NFL, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if by the end of the season he leaves ESPN to work in the front office of some team.
In other ESPN news, Michael McCarthy of USA Today reports that Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks won’t be returning as football analysts at ESPN. It’s not clear whether that was their choice or ESPN’s, but Brooks and Dunn, who were teammates at Florida State and on the Buccaneers, both had relatively minor roles at ESPN and both have a wide array of charitable activities that take up most of their time.
UPDATE: We’ve heard from a few readers wondering whether Parcells’ presence will affect Mike Ditka’s role. ESPN tells us that Ditka will be back in the same role.