ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” #2 stand has been changed.
Chris Fowler will replace Steve Levy as the booth’s play-by-play announcer, Reporting by Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. Levy managed play-by-play duties alongside analysts Louis Reddick and Dan Orlovsky for ESPN NFL games not covered by its first team. Fowler is the college football broadcaster for ESPN along with analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
It is not clear from the report if Riddick and Orlowski will remain in the booth or if Fowler will work with a new partner or team. ESPN has not confirmed the report.
The move is the latest in mixing NFL coverage talent across networks. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman moved from Fox to ESPN last season and will continue to run the network’s primary NFL booth. Michaels moved from NBC to Amazon Prime, where he called Thursday night games alongside Herbstreit. Herbstreit still calls college games for ESPN, but hasn’t called NFL games on the network since joining Amazon Prime.
The secondary “Monday Night Football” role is expanding, according to ESPN’s recent rights agreement with the NFL signed in 2021. The second team will now call five games per season that Buck and Aikman don’t, including a cap, The Post reports.
Levy works in multiple roles at ESPN and presumably will maintain his duties elsewhere. No updated terms of Fowler’s contract have been reported.
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