Peyton Manning Reportedly Rejects Analyst Role For "Monday Night Football"

He retired from the NFL four years ago, but Peyton Manning still isn't in a rush to get back into the game of football.

According to a report from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, the five-time NFL MVP and two-time Super Bowl champion "turned down" an offer from ESPN to work as an analyst for Monday Night Football.

Manning had rejected previous offers from the network, Marchand noted. The 44-year-old has had two programs, Peyton's Places and Detail, featured on ESPN.

Back in January, it was reported that ESPN was prepared to make a huge offer to former Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo, who joined CBS as an analyst in the 2017 season.

However, CBS managed to retain Romo on a reported 10-year deal worth $180 million. This was the richest contract ever for a sports analyst, and by a significant margin. John Madden previously held the record, earning $8 million annually.

Two years ago, it was reported that both Fox and ESPN were pushing hard for Manning's services. Fox secured the Thursday Night Football package before the 2018 season. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck, Fox's lead NFL broadcast team, do the Thursday night games.

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Monday Night Football has seen plenty of changes on its broadcast team over the past four years. Play-by-play man Mike Tirico left for NBC Sports in 2016, and he was replaced by Sean McDonough.

However, McDonough left after just two seasons to call only college games for ESPN. Jon Gruden left his analyst role and returned to coaching, signing a $100 million contract with the Raiders. Joe Tessitore became the lead play-by-play man for the 2018 season, with former Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten and two-time Super Bowl champion Booger McFarland arriving as analysts.

But Witten returned to football after a one-year retirement. And it remains to be seen if ESPN will continue with tessitore and McFarland, or if they'll still make a change despite missing out on Romo and Manning.

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