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Nate Burleson is a crossover star to bet on because he is more skilled as a TV performer than he was as a football player.
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Nate Burleson is a crossover star to bet on because he is more skilled as a TV performer than he was as a football player.
That is not meant to be disrespectful about his career as an NFL receiver. After all, spending 11 years in the league is impressive. But with the Lions, for example, he was the No. 2 option after Calvin Johnson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this past weekend.
On TV, however, Burleson is quickly becoming Megatron. One day, he will likely lead a Super Bowl broadcast.
Burleson was named Wednesday as a host of “CBS This Morning.” He will remain as an analyst on the network’s “The NFL Today,” while adding more duties on Nickelodeon, which is also owned by ViacomCBS.
For good measure, he will still appear on NFL Network every now and then.
Burleson has not yet reached Michael Strahan’s heights. The former Giant is on the more popular “Good Morning America” and “Fox NFL Sunday.” But Burleson has a chance to do more — and maybe even become bigger than Strahan.
CBS, according to sources, already views Burleson as the heir apparent to “The NFL Today” host James Brown. Brown, 70, has given no indication that he plans to retire soon, but when he does, Burleson is expected to step to the lead chair.
That is significant because, besides the weekly show, it would mean Burleson would host a Super Bowl.
Burleson will still be on NFL Network on occasion, but will no longer appear daily on the fun and popular, “Good Morning Football.” He will not be easy to replace.
He called the “GMFB” crew of Peter Schrager, Kyle Brandt and Kay Adams a family. The foursome became early morning friends for viewers.
A couple of names that likely will be considered to replace Burleson on “GMFB” are DeAngelo Hall and Andrew Hawkins, according to sources.
Whoever gets the job will have to be as committed as Burleson and the crew. Morning shows are only for people who truly want to be on TV. Burleson did it, and now is moving to a larger morning stage.
With CBS, Burleson will also do more of the Nickelodeon games that led to such a success during last year’s wild-card showing. Burleson’s authenticity, which shined through on that broadcast, is what will likely make him a morning success.
Burleson had a nice NFL career. One year, he even had 1,000 yards receiving. But he was a possession guy.
The new deal means, however, that on the TV stage, Burleson is a No. 1 option and he just moved to another level.
The Premier League will kick off Friday in its final year of its current contract on NBC. The network has been using the soccer league to increase its Peacock subscriptions, but it will surely have major competition to keep the rights from ESPN+, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video and network TV. NBC paid a reported $1.3 billion for six years on its current deal.
That number is expected to skyrocket and the desire to continue airing the Premier League was seen as a large reason why NBC did not retain the NHL.
For the subscription platforms, the Premier League is the most valuable among soccer because it is weekly from August through May, meaning subscribers would be retained — probably in most cases — for a whole year.
The Premier League’s depth also is protected from a situation that ESPN finds itself in after Lionel Messi this week left Barcelona to sign with Paris Saint-Germain.
ESPN just signed a long-term deal with La Liga and, if Messi had remained with Barcelona, you can be assured that his face would have been all over ESPN advertising the start of the season. Instead, there is no Messi and much less buzz.
This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Andrew Marchand
