New Monday Night Football broadcaster Brian Griese shares unique way he learned he got the job
By Adam Spencer
Published:
When people get good news, they sometimes describe the feeling as being on top of the world or being on a mountaintop.
Well, when ESPN commentator Brian Griese learned he was part of the new Monday Night Football booth, he had literally just finished climbing a mountain.
Appearing on Adam Schefter’s podcast this week, Griese revealed that he was climbing a mountain in Colorado when he got a text from an ESPN producer (via Awful Announcing):
“I decided to go with a couple of buddies and climb Longs Peak that Friday when the news came out. It’s a long hike – it’s a 12 hour hike. No way I would have Levy join me on that kind of a hike because he wouldn’t make it halfway. But we got to the top of the mountain at about 7 AM, and I took out my phone to take a picture from the summit, 14,000 feet. On my phone was one text message from Lee Fitting at ESPN and it said ‘hey, call me ASAP.’ Well, there was no reception at the top of the mountain, and there was no ‘hey, you got the job’ or ‘you didn’t get the job,’ and I was literally five hours away from any kind of reception.
So needless to say, when I got down to the bottom of Longs Peak, everybody else, as Levy said, in the world knew except for me. But it was actually a really cool experience.
[…]But for me to walk down and climb down that mountain, with that kind of energy and anticipation…and it wasn’t lost on me that 11 years I’ve been calling games for ESPN. This is something that we all wanted. And it is the summit, and I just came from the summit of a mountain. So it wasn’t lost on me, the comparison, and for me, personally, it was the perfect way to find out.”
Joining Griese in the MNF booth will be Steve Levy and Louis Riddick. It’s probably safe to say neither of them have as cool of a story of learning of their new assignments as Griese.
The new booth will be in action this coming Monday night as the NFL season kicks off.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
