Mike Greenberg will replace Sam Ponder as host of “Sunday NFL Countdown” on ESPN, the network announced Tuesday. Ponder was fired last week along with the show’s analyst, Robert Griffin III.
Greenberg, 57, is best known for “Mike & Mike,” the hit sports radio show with former NFL player Mike Golic that ran for 18 years before ending in 2017. Greenberg and Golic were inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2016 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
As the current host of the daily shows “Get Up” on ESPN and “Greeny” on ESPN Radio, Greenberg already has his hands full. He also hosts the NFL Draft on ESPN.
Greenberg is also a prolific author. His first book, a self-deprecating account of his life as a sports fan and husband, published in 2007, “Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot,” spent five weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and was nominated for a Quill Award. Three years later, Greenberg and Golic wrote “Mike & Mike's Rules for Sports and Life,” which reached No. 3 on the Times best-seller list.
Greenberg also published two novels, “All You Could Ask For” and “My Father's Wives,” and two years ago he co-authored a collection of short sports essays, “Got Your Number: The Greatest Sports Legends and the Numbers They Own.”
In his new Sunday morning gig, Greenberg will be joined by NFL insider Adam Schefter and former players Randy Moss, Tedy Bruschi, Rex Ryan and Alex Smith. Jeff Darlington, Dan Graziano, Kimberley A. Martin, Sal Paolantonio and Lindsey Thiry will call the games.
The firings of Ponder and Griffin were called a business decision by a person with knowledge of the situation who is not authorized to speak on the record. Both will receive what they are owed on their contracts and will be paid before this fiscal year ends in September. Griffin had two years remaining on his contract, while Ponder had one year left. Both had seven-figure salaries.
“This was no different than other talent layoffs, it was a purely financial business decision,” said the person with knowledge of the cuts.
Michele Tafoya, a former longtime ESPN reporter, and others speculated that Ponder was fired at least in part because she expressed her opinion that transgender women should not play sports against other women. In 2023, Ponder tweeted: “Call me what you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s inherently unfair for biological men to compete in women’s sports. It’s literally the reason they were segregated in the first place, and the reason we need Title IX.”
However, Tafoya acknowledged in an interview on Fox News that hiring someone to replace Ponder would justify the change three weeks before the start of the NFL season. “I don’t know why they would do this so close to the season and draw so much attention to it,” he said, “unless they want to bring in the next announcer and give him a lot of attention.”
Greenberg is clearly a new host worth watching. “Sunday NFL Countdown” will open its 40th season on Sept. 8 and conclude on Super Bowl Sunday in New Orleans on Feb. 9. The pregame show, now three hours long and originally called “NFL GameDay,” debuted in 1985.
