A year ago, Robert Griffin III was one of ESPN’s most prominent personalities. The former Heisman Trophy winner was on Monday Night Countdown, called college football games in primetime, and was a regular on Get Up! and First Take.
Now, Griffin is out at ESPN, after Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported the network fired Griffin with two years remaining on his contract. As Marchand notes, ESPN is approaching the end of its fiscal year, which is why it made this decision now.
ESPN is entering the end of its fiscal year, where it typically makes these types of decisions. Griffin’s stock had fallen, making him a prime candidate to be let go. While his seven-figure-per-year salary will be honored, his role had diminished to a point where ESPN decided to not keep him on. He was informed of ESPN’s move on Thursday morning, a source briefed on the decision confirmed.
Griffin won’t be the only big name not on ESPN’s airwaves this fall, as Samantha Ponder is also out, per Marchand, as ESPN looked to trim a pair of big salaries. Ponder had been host of Sunday NFL Countdown since 2017 after moving from college football coverage to the NFL.
With the college football season beginning in a week and the NFL season starting shortly after, the news comes as a pretty big surprise and we’ll have to wait to see how ESPN shuffles their commentary and studio teams. Griffin had already been replaced on Monday Night Countdown by Jason Kelce, but his departure means changes are coming to the college football commentary booth. Ponder’s departure opens up one of the biggest host jobs at the network, and it remains to be seen who fills it. Laura Rutledge, who hosts NFL Live and SEC Nation, would make sense to take on that role.