Robert Griffin III’s second act: The former QB shows star potential as an analyst
Robert Griffin III has been a full-time broadcaster for less than six months but if you’ve tuned into any of the college football games he has called this season — Griffin III is the lead analyst on a team featuring play-by-play announcer Mark Jones and reporter Quint Kessenich – you have likely been impressed. As one ESPN executive recently told me: “I haven’t been this bullish on someone in a long time.”
On Saturday, Griffin will be on the call for No. 7 Oregon Ducks (7-1) at Washington (4-4). That’s a primetime game on ABC (7:30 p.m. ET). As a sports viewer, you are going to be seeing Griffin working on the NFL coverage at the conclusion of the college football season. He is expected to have an NFL studio role in December and January — I’d look for him on “Monday Night Countdown” at some point. Earlier this week, Griffin III joined my podcast to talk about his transition to broadcasting. Here is an edited version of that conversation.
Why did you want to enter sports broadcasting?
Griffin: To tell you the truth — I didn’t. This is something that kind of came out of nowhere for me. Back in 2017, I was out of the league for a year. I was 27. I was focused on being signed again and training, and not really worried about that next chapter. I didn’t get signed that year but obviously I did get back in the league with the Ravens and was there for three seasons. This offseason, I didn’t want to take that same approach. So I continued to train every day but I started knocking on some other doors. It all started with an audition with Fox. I never thought that broadcasting (games) would be the avenue for me. I thought it would be more studio. But I called a game (as part of an audition process) for Fox and ESPN found out about it. Then I called a (practice) game for ESPN. The rest is history. I’m now on this wild ride and it’s been a lot of fun.
People are fascinated by the audition process in sports broadcasting and how it works. Fox calls you for an audition. Do you go to their Los Angeles studios and call a game with an existing play-by-play person? How did that work?
Griffin: Full disclosure: I went out to Fox in L.A. and called a game with Kevin Burkhardt. It was a big-time audition with a guy of his stature. They don’t give you much lead time to prepare for the games you’re going to call. They give you a recipe of how many different teams it could be and you just have to study all those different teams. They don’t give you the exact game because they don’t want you trying to predict what’s going to happen because you’ve already seen said game. We called a full game and then I did some studio work with Kevin. You just have to rely on your experience and the things that you see and how you see the game. That’s what they are most focused on. They want to see how you see the game and how you can portray that quickly to the viewer. It was a lot of fun.
So you do the Fox Sports audition. Whether it is you or your agent, you eventually do something similar at ESPN. Did you go to Bristol, Connecticut, and call a previous college football game with one of their existing play-by-play people?
Griffin: Yes, I did. It was a blessing that ESPN found out about it and they were eager to bring me in to do the audition. I got Rece Davis as a partner. I recognized the magnitude of what was going on when I walked in there and saw Rece. We talked about college football and the awards back when I was in college. Not only did they bring Rece in but we called the national championship game from last year. So we called the game and then Rece told me some pretty cool things about how well we did. I will carry that with me forever. The bottom line was both networks brought their A-game to the table and wanted to see how I could handle it and if I could hang. Luckily, I was able to go out and impress them.
How did ESPN management make you aware of how you did?
Griffin: Well, as you know, in the media world, everything is immediate. So we called the game, Rece put his headset down, and he talked to me about how impressed he was with the audition. ESPN (talent office) executive Patrick Donaher was there as well. He said they had to rethink everything they were thinking for me coming into ESPN. In 2018, I did a car wash at ESPN. I went onto all the shows. It was kind of an audition. They wanted to assign me to “NFL Live” that year but then I signed a couple weeks later with the Ravens. I think all along they thought it I would be in the studio doing “NFL Live” or the Countdown shows and things like that. After I did the audition at ESPN with Rece, they told me that they’re going to have to rethink everything. I took that as good news. The more you can do, the better. They gave me immediate feedback right away and then you guys saw the media reports about the bidding war. Then it was getting calls from all the guys at ESPN and Fox. That was a cool process because you always want to feel like they want it you?
So these two entities both made offers, right?
Griffin: Yeah, they both made offers. It was a lot of back and forth. It was a tough discussion. Because it was not only just which network to go to and what was the best opportunity right now, but it was also making sure you go about it the right way and don’t burn any of those bridges and keep that communication open because you never know what could happen in the future. On top of that, I’m still 31. It was a little bit of concern that I would go back and play. But for me right now, we’re over halfway through the season and I have a job. My job is to be the best broadcaster I can possibly be for ESPN. That’s the approach I’m taking to it. Do I train every day? Yeah, I train every day. Am I ready to go (back to the NFL?) Yeah, I’m ready to go. But at the end of the day I’m having fun with my crew of Mark Jones, Quint Kessenich and the rest of the guys.
So are you approaching ESPN on a year-by-year basis and you will see what happens with the NFL? How does that work for you?
Griffin: Thinking of myself as a football player is what’s made this process so fun because I love the game and football has given so much to me over the last 20 years. I think that people hear that excitement when we call the games. They hear that in the energy when we’re calling the game and when we talk football on TV. I don’t think the football player in me will ever die, even when I’m 67 years old and couldn’t even think about playing on a football field, I think that that type of energy is just embedded in me. The love for the game is embedded in me. But when you talk about a contractual thing with ESPN and playing football, right now my contract is my contract. I’m at ESPN and that’s the approach I’m taking.
If this second professional life as a broadcaster becomes a 20 or 30-year career, are you at peace with your last game as a professional athlete?
Griffin: You have to be, you know. You always say you never live with any regrets. This opportunity in the broadcasting world is the ability to help mold the mind and teach. I don’t look at my last game and say, “Man, I wish it had ended differently.” A lot of times football players, we don’t get to end our career the way that we want to. That’s just the nature of the game. It does not always end pretty. Look, I tore my hamstring off the bone in my last game played for the Baltimore Ravens. That’s obviously not the way that I want to end my career. I want to end my career on my own terms. But this opportunity has truly been a blessing. A lot of times we try to force the issue and figure out what we’re going to do next. This one kind of came out of nowhere. I can only thank God for putting the people in my life that he has to help this opportunity come about and that’s the team that I have with (producer) Kim Belton, Anthony DeMarco, our director, and Mark Jones and Quint Kessenich. It’s been amazing for me to get to start with people who have so much experience in this industry.
It’s impossible to fake preparation as an on-air analyst. You know when people research and study. Calling college football, I think, would expose that even more because most of us at least tangentially follow the NFL. These are famous people. But if you are calling a college team, you really have to do the research to know who the backup offensive tackle is or you’re going to get exposed. Could you take me through your preparation process because it’s clear that you are someone who prepares.
Griffin: I appreciate that. What I would say is if you can do college football, you can do pro football. Because, as you said, these guys in the NFL are known. They are famous guys. The rosters change every year but not that drastically. So once you get into that, the art in the NFL is about storytelling when you’ve already told the story so many times. Whereas in college, a lot of times you are getting different teams every week. We’ve had the blessing to call a couple of teams this year for a second time and the challenge there is just telling the story again because you know that the viewers that watch this game might not be the viewer that watched the last game.
So for me preparation-wise, I start watching tape on Sunday. I’m watching NFL football and staying up to date on that because I’m also an NFL analyst. But I start watching the college games on Sundays. I try to spend two or three days watching games before I ever look at a guy’s stats or try to look into any of the special interest stories. That’s usually my Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday I start getting prepared for our call with the away team, which will be on Wednesday. Now I’m starting to look at the stats. What were the preseason expectations? Who has played well and who hasn’t played well? What are the traditions of the school? What are some cool tidbits or recruiting stories about the individuals? Where are they from? On Wednesday you get a lot of the bulk of your information from the coaches. When you get on the phone with the coaches, you can talk about their offensive scheme and their defensive scheme and the head coach and his confidence, all these different things adding to what you already know. The last thing you want to do is go into that call not knowing anything.
Then on Thursday I watch the tape again of the team we just talked about and prep for the call on Friday, which is with the home team. You can’t fake energy and you can’t fake preparation, in my opinion, because fake energy can be perceived pretty quickly. We just try to have fun, teach, and ESPN has it an E in it for a reason. It’s entertainment and we’re not the main show. The show is the game, so we’re trying to just add to the game. Every week my crew goes through trying to figure out how can we add to the game whether it’s with analysis or information.
How often do you lead the discussion when it comes to production meetings?
Griffin: What I would say is that is our crew does a nice job of balancing that act. Mark’s been in the business 31 years so early in the season he always tries to start the call off. But for the most part I’m the one that has to lead those meetings when we have our production. When we talk about the overview of the game, Kim Belton is looking to me. When I talk to the camera guys before the game, I’m going to have to lead those meetings, and they didn’t tell me that when I got here.
Welcome to broadcasting (laughs)
Griffin: Exactly (laughs). I’m like, “OK, so I got I got to lead the meeting? The rookie, the first year guy here?” Thank God I was prepared and I’ve taken this seriously because when that happened, it was just like, Man, I’m back in a team meeting where I’m the quarterback and I have to lead everybody and tell them about the offense and the defense and the special teams and the coach. So that was cool for me. I actually said this to our crew last week. I told them that a lot of players when they first get into this (broadcasting), they still have that edge to play. We’ve had such good camaraderie and a good tempo and having so much fun that I told them at times they have made me not miss football at all. They were all shocked by that. Look, we’re on the road every week and having to travel to different cities. I don’t know if you ever tried to get to Clemson, South Carolina, but it’s not easy. So having to go through all that together, it’s been fun and we have that camaraderie outside of the broadcast booth. Leading those meetings was something I wasn’t expecting, but because I was prepared and these guys have helped me along the way, it became second nature.
You have Oregon-Washington this week and you have called some well-known teams including Oklahoma and Clemson. You’ve already gotten a taste of top 10 college football.
Griffin: We also got Georgia. We had Georgia when they were No. 2 and Wake Forest when they were not ranked and now they’re ranked. It’s been very interesting and really cool just how they go about that picking process.
I was watching the end of your Oklahoma-Kansas game and I was blown away by you closing the broadcast with some thoughts on Langston Hughes. That’s not a name we normally hear on college football Saturday. I thought that was an interesting historical notation and immediately thought this broadcaster is interesting and different. Did you have that pre-planned or was it something that came up organically given Langston Hughes’s connection to Kansas and Lawrence.
Griffin: I don’t go into a broadcast trying to be different. What I want us to do is to just be ourselves because that’s easy to do. It’s hard to play a character every week. So when you can go on the broadcast and be yourself, it’s easy to replicate and you become consistent. Earlier in the game Mark Jones had quoted him (Hughes) and we did a piece on him. I’m a quote guy. If anybody knows me or follows me on social, I like to put out quotes and things like that. So I know a lot about Langston Hughes and my mind went straight to the Langston Hughes quote that I used at the end of the game We try to make sure we’re giving the historical context of these places that we’re going and sometimes that that’s not always the prettiest thing. But we’re trying to tell stories because that’s our job. Our job is to tell stories of the players, the coaches, the program. I feel like it’s something that our group does really well, of bringing in the stories of the city. So we knew Langston Hughes was there and we did a special (feature) on it and then we closed out the broadcast with that. I can tell you right now that Kim Belton, Andy DiMarco, Mark, Quint, everybody on the team was not expecting me to use that Langston Hughes quote, but they loved it. That was a pretty cool moment because when we got off air, it was like an applause came down to me. I knew I had that in my head and I was ready to present it, and it was the perfect quote for that moment.
Have your bosses told you what you’ll be involved with in the NFL whether it’s going to be working in the city of the Super Bowl this year or some other NFL assignment.
Griffin: The sense I have right now is that they can’t wait for college football to be over so they can get their hands on me. With the high profile college teams that we’re calling, they want to make sure I stay focused on calling these games to the best of our ability. But here and there, you’re going to start seeing me get more sprinkled into the studio stuff and the NFL stuff, and I think they’re really excited about that possibility. I just take whatever they give at this point. I’m under contract. I know what my contract and obligations are. And then it’s just about trying to exceed all expectations.
You seem to want to navigate both the game broadcast and studio role, right?
Griffin: The studio stuff is also something that’s intriguing because you’re teaching the game a different way on the broadcast. There’s time constraints, there’s a play going on. You have to talk about the players in that game, but you do get opportunities to speak about the College Football Playoff and rankings and things like that. But when you’re in the studio, whether it be college, NFL, or just general sports talk, you actually have an opportunity to let the viewer fully understand your mindset and your thought process on certain things. If I’m on that set, my job is to portray my thoughts the best I possibly can for the person who’s watching. Maybe there’s someone who agrees. Maybe there’s someone who disagrees. But at the end of the day that opinion, that firm discussion that I’m having with my own self, is something I think I can portray really well for the viewer. You’re are also a lot more visible when you’re doing the studio stuff than when you’re being in the broadcast booth. I’m interested in doing both for a long time.
I realize you have been in the business for a short time but why do you think certain people succeed for the long haul and why others do not?
Griffin: It’s preparation. Preparation is the key. You can say that about every walk of life — playing the game, talking about the game, going to your 9 to 5. I think that is a big reason why people don’t succeed; they don’t understand how much work goes into this. It’s a lot of studying. It’s a lot of meticulous work that you might not want to do. But for me, coming straight off the field into the booth helped because it was the same when I played. It’s meticulous work. It’s hard work. It’s studying. It’s been an easier transition because I didn’t have a break from playing to doing in TV. I also went into it having great mentors tell me how much work it was going to take. If you want to be the best in anything in life, you’ve got to put the work in. You can’t teach personality. You either have it or you don’t. But it’s the preparation. There are a lot of people on TV right now that don’t have the greatest personalities, but they are prepared, they can speak, and they can deliver their opinion quickly, concisely, and in an effective manner.
Is there a dream broadcasting assignment you want?
Griffin: I’ve learned in the last couple of months that you don’t want to want to speak too quickly because the media landscape changes very fast. Maybe there’s a show that you thought, Hey, I really want to be on that show, and it doesn’t exist in a year or two. I just want to be the best. That’s it. I want to be the best at what I’m doing. I want to be a great teammate for the people on the crew with me. I want them to shine. I want to go out and have fun. Whatever the biggest and best opportunities are out there, you can list them. I’m an ambitious guy and anyone who knows me or has followed me over the years on social knows, I’m a very positive guy. I’m not in this just to do it for 20 to 30 years. I’m in this to do it for a long time and be the best. That’s the approach I take to it every single day. I try to bring genuine energy, try to make people laugh, I try to entertain and give them some knowledge that maybe they didn’t know before the broadcast. So I believe that anything is achievable and that’s just the way I operate. I’m not in this to be mediocre.
The Ink Report
1. On Monday I published a piece featuring six college students from around the country who are currently working as sports editors for a college publication — from Stanford to Syracuse to Montana. It gives insight into what it’s like to be a college sports journalist in 2021. If you missed it, I think you’ll find it interesting.
2. Really worth watching TNT’s Ernie Johnson’s tribute to son Michael, who passed away this week, and Shaq, Charles and Kenny speaking of their relationship with Johnson.
3. The Peyton and Eli Manning Cast reached its highest audience on Monday with 1.96 million viewers for Chiefs-Giants, on ESPN2. (Between the main broadcast and the Manning Cast, “Monday Night Football” drew 13.99 million viewers.) The Manning Cast jumped from 1.606 million on Nov. 1 . For the season, “Monday Night Football” is averaging 13.7 million viewers over eight games, up 17 percent from both the 2020 and 2019 seasons through eight weeks.
4. Fox drew a huge viewership number for the Michigan State’s win over Michigan last Saturday. The game drew 9.289 million viewers, the most-watched regular-season college football game on any network since Clemson-Notre Dame (10.1 million) in Nov. 2020. Georgia-Clemson on Sept. 4 is the second most-watched game of this season at 8.863 million viewers on ABC.