ESPN Drops Robert Griffin III, Sam Ponder Ahead of Football Season
ESPN is making a few cuts to its football roster: NFL analyst Robert Griffin III and host Sam Ponder have been let go by the network, The Athletic reports. The cuts were reportedly “made for financial reasons.”
Griffin, a former NFL quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy in college, had been with ESPN since 2021, appearing on the NFL pregame show Monday Night Countdown and as an analyst during college football games as well. Earlier this year, though, ESPN hired former player Jason Kelce to take Griffin’s spot on the Monday Night Countdown crew.
Ponder had been with ESPN for more than a decade, most recently serving as the host of the network’s Sunday morning NFL pregame show Sunday NFL Countdown. In years past, Ponder worked as a college football sideline reporter and host for ESPN as well. There’s no word yet on who will replace Ponder as host of Sunday NFL Countdown, with the NFL season kicking off in just three weeks.
The cuts come about a year after ESPN dropped more than a dozen prominent on-air personalities, including NBA analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Jalen Rose and NFL commentators Steve Young and Matt Hasselbeck, in a cost-cutting move. Longtime SportsCenter anchor John Anderson also retired in June after more than two decades with the network.
Well, at least transphobe Sam Ponder’s gone. Good riddance to her
Really enjoyed RG3, so this news sucks.
What a shame. I liked both of them.
Must be nice
Thanks to both you guys. Good luck in the future. Stay ready!
For those who do not follow football, RG3 is being replaced by another retired NFL veteran who has had more success and a much longer career. Jason Kelce is a huge signing for ESPN and I can only imagine what the bidding war between networks must have been like. He will be voted (arguably first-ballot) into the NFL Hall of Fame and has one of the most listened to podcasts in the country with his little brother, Travis (guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer). Oh, and Travis is dating some up-and-coming blonde singer. I hope she gets her big break soon.
This is terrible news, RGIII was one of the best I have heard in a long time. He made the games exciting.
Sam stands up for XX women having a fair, level competition field.
ESPN continues its policies as to getting rid of women who speak out against discriminatory policies towards genetically born females.
First Sage Steele now Sam Ponder.
Pathetically sad.