Lee Corso announced his retirement yesterday; he has been an ESPN football analyst for the last 38 years; he will make his final appearance on College Game Day in Week 1 of the college football season. Prior to becoming an analyst in ESPN, Corso played college football at Florida State and coached at Northern Illinois. This should be a sad day for college football fans; Lee Corso was an icon of the sport much the same way that John Madden was an icon of NFL football on TV.
Someone pointed out to me about 10 years ago that Corso was the master of “product placement advertising”. He told me to watch Corso’s hands on College Game Day; when he was not reaching under the table to put on the headgear of his pick of the day, he was always holding a long yellow pencil and it turns out that he then had a job with the company that makes yellow #2 pencils. I checked it out; indeed, Corso had a pencil in his hand much of the time.
Corso’s headgear gimmick was so “off the wall” that it was entertaining, and people looked forward to that segment of the program. Unlike recent changes to the program, it never descended into rampant jackassery though it had the potential to do so.
Bonne chance, Lee Corso. The game of college football that you helped to grow and prosper is entering a new way of life. With your retirement, so are you.
With the departure of Corso from College Game Day the back-and-forth among the serious voices on the show will likely change a lot. Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso had a style of banter that was serious and light-hearted/breezy at the same time. I’m not sure that Herbstreit and Coach Saban can pull off that second characteristic of their interactions. That is not a knock on Saban at all; that is simply a recognition that change is coming to the program.
And since I brought up Coach Saban and the jackassery element that has seeped into the show:
- Am I the only one who looks at Saban during a “silly segment” and thinks that he would rather be prepping for a colonoscopy than be part of that silliness?
I know that ESN pays its on-air talent well, but Coach Saban cannot possibly “need the money”.
Moving on … It was on March 12th when the NY Jets released Aaron Rodgers; that was more than 5 weeks ago. I am not surprised that he has slow-played his decision as to his playing status for 2025; that keeps his name in the headlines which is something that seems to be of great importance to Rodgers. Yesterday, he was on Pat McAfee’s program – one of his favorite outlets – and answered some questions that have been hanging fire at least since March 12th and for some folks since about the middle of the 2024 NFL season when the Jets up and fired both their coach and their GM.
In typical Rodgers’ fashion, some of his answers were maximally nuanced:
- What has taken so long for you to decide if you are going to play again in 2025?
“I’m open to anything and attached to nothing. So yeah, retirement could still be a possibility. But right now, my focus is on … my personal life.”
There have been rumors about Rodgers signing with the Giants, the Vikings and the Steelers. Based on the NFL’s schedule rotation, the Steelers and the Jets will play each other in 2025; and that game will be in NY. Every sports radio talk show host is lighting candles in church and offering up prayers for Rodgers to sign on with the Steelers because that single event can fill up a dozen radio segments the day after the signing and multiple dozens of segments for the week leading up to that Steelers/Jets game.
Switching gears … With MLB fully engaged, fans at the ballpark will be challenged in 2025 to order up and consume some new culinary concoctions. Here is one awaiting Arizona D-Backs’ fans for 2025:
- Start with a heap of Cajun Fries. Top with thick cut bacon strips and “white cheddar mac and cheese”. Then garnish with deep fried onion strips.
- Wash that down with a couple of lagers and you may have had your recommended input of carbohydrates for three days.
Finally, a question to ponder from Steven Wright:
“What’s another word for Thesaurus?”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………