Mark Schlereth is leaving ESPN. The longtime football analyst is taking up shop at FS1 after 16 years of talking about and analyzing the NFL for the Worldwide Leader. Schlereth announced his network change on Twitter and then appeared on FS1 on Tuesday, joining Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe on Undisputed to talk football.
I'm excited to announce that starting today 7/11/17 I have moved to @FS1 as a studio analyst. Truly blessed to have this opportunity.
— Mark Schlereth (@markschlereth) July 11, 2017
Schlereth was reportedly close with former ESPN and now former FS1 executive Jamie Horowitz, and, as Mike Florio over at ProFootballTalk notes, it’s likely his deal was finalized before Horowitz himself was let go last week.
Chances are the contract was signed before Horowitz got the boot, adding Schlereth to a lengthy list of Horowitz hires that FOX eventually will have to decide whether to keep. While some have assumed that FOX will honor all contracts negotiated by Horowitz, keep in mind that ESPN let go many employees with multiple years left on their deals.
Whether Schlereth is used on other Fox entities is unclear yet, but he’s yet another familiar face gone from ESPN after the company went through massive layoffs earlier this spring. Fox Sports also went through significant layoffs in recent weeks, though most of those cuts were to the company’s web content. I don’t expect Schlereth banging out content in a word processor just yet, but with Fox going through significant leadership changes his full role with the company is still unknown.
