James Holzhauer and the rest of the Jeopardy! world is getting ready for an early 2020 showdown with Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings in the Jeopardy! GOAT Tournament, but no one knows quite yet what happens after that.
Holzhauer has had one of the best 2019s on record, winning more than $2.4 million in regular Jeopardy! episodes, then added a Tournament of Champions win for another $250,000. He then inked a deal for the GOAT Tournament, with another million dollars on the line. But you can’t play Jeopardy! forever, and there’s been a lot of speculation about what Holzhauer does after his time on the show is over.
On Tuesday, Holzhauer took note of a story written by Peter King about former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who is out of football in 2019 after he was fired by the Packers at the end of 2018. McCarthy has taken a deep dive into what the future of football looks like, including analytics, and King mentioned Holzhauer, who he wrote about earlier in the year.
I asked McCarthy if he watched “Jeopardy.” He didn’t. I mentioned the summer run of the brilliant James Holzhauer, who obliterated opponents for 32 straight games and won $2.7 million. Holzhauer’s model: be very aggressive, very fast, and always bet big. I met Holzhauer in July and wrote about him, and he had different ideas about football strategy and football betting that I hadn’t heard before. McCarthy knew of him, and when I told him Holzhauer told me last summer he wanted a job in analytics for a baseball or football team, the coach perked up.
“I want to talk to him,” McCarthy said.
That line was enough to get Holzhauer to comment on the situation, and he made it clear that even if McCarthy doesn’t have a job with an NFL team, he’d be interested. He tweeted a screenshot of the story and mentioned that he’s available in a few months.
Jeopardy’s non-compete runs out in January. Just sayin’ https://t.co/rDlls78Pfc pic.twitter.com/9R4JHJ0vgl
— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) December 17, 2019
The non-compete would seem to be something he had to sign to be on Jeopardy!, which means he’s available for any and all work, not necessarily just in football. But Holzhauer has made it clear he would take a job in baseball or football, and you should always be the best advocate for yourself, so all of this makes sense. Also of note: Holzhauer has changed his Twitter avatar from Weird Al to the Fallout GOAT icon, which is clever. He’s clearly ready for the GOAT Tournament and is already making plans for what’s next. We just won’t know what that is until the paperwork clears.
