Peter Schrager wouldn’t call it resentment. That’s not what he feels toward NFL Network.
The longtime co-host of Good Morning Football officially left the network earlier this year to take on a new challenge at ESPN. And while the move may have caught some by surprise, it had been a long time coming, especially after the show relocated to Los Angeles and Schrager remained based on the East Coast. With a year left on his deal, he started quietly planning what came next.
“I don’t have anything left to give that show,” he said on SI Media with Jimmy Traina. “I love that show. I root for it. In fact, I still watch it in the mornings when I’m flipping around. I still laugh at what Kyle [Brandt’s] got to say, and I think Manti [Te’o] is a great addition. And Jamie [Erdahl] is as good as it gets for a morning show host. And a lot of the producers are still my best friends. I’m still rooting for it, but I couldn’t do another ‘Whiteboard Wednesday.’ I couldn’t do another remote segment where we’re interviewing the same, whatever it is, another year.”
The creative burnout wasn’t the only factor. Schrager said the move to L.A. all but confirmed what he already suspected: that the show was becoming a West Coast production, and he had no plans to relocate his family.
“I don’t like being the man in the box,” he said. “I hated doing Zoom TV during COVID. I like being in the studio. I like having juice. So, I tried getting there as often as possible. I did like the week of shows every month out on the West Coast, but it was waking up at 2 a.m. It just wasn’t sensible. And I was not moving my family out there. I did the best job I could for the time the contract was up, and fortunately, ESPN was also interested in bringing me on.”
Schrager hit the ground running with ESPN’s coverage of the 2025 NFL Draft. While he didn’t dominate the main TV panel, he absolutely stole the show on Pat McAfee’s Draft Spectacular. As Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod observed, “In the three weeks since officially being hired by ESPN, Peter Schrager has seemingly been omnipresent…” and that during the draft, “he was the star of Pat McAfee’s annual NFL Draft Spectacular.”
That early momentum hasn’t dulled his appreciation for where he came from. Despite the move, there’s no bitterness about how things ended at NFL Network.
“I don’t have any regrets with how it ended, because everyone was lovely and they gave me a final show,” he continued. “I will say, when I joined the NFL Network was not what I was leaving. It was a totally different group of executives, totally different feel. And their look at Good Morning Football, I think, was a little different from what we were doing in those first early years.”
Some of the best work of his career came on GMFB, but it was time. Schrager and Brandt spent a year talking football from remote boxes. It was awkward. It was strange. He joked that in some ways, it mirrored breakups he’s had in the past. But he insists there’s no jealousy, just a weird kind of lingering affection. And with ESPN and NFL Network heading toward a larger merger under Disney, it’s not impossible that they all end up under the same roof anyway.
“If anything, I want that show to kick ass,” said Schrager. “And if they hire someone in my seat, which they haven’t done yet, I want to see that person excel and get the best nine years of their career, as well, because that’s what I got.”
That chapter’s closed. ESPN was the fresh start he needed. But it didn’t come with instant credibility.
“I can’t just show up and be like, ‘Hey, I’m Peter Schrager. I didn’t play the game, and I don’t have the news that Adam Schefter does, but I’m here, too.’ I needed to establish myself, and I did,” he said.
“The thing I got the most — and I laugh at it — was people calling me a sellout online for leaving and going to ESPN, and putting a shirt and tie on,” Schrager continued. “ESPN didn’t hire me to suddenly become a hot-take artist. ESPN didn’t hire me to become a stiff. If you’ve watched me on any of these shows, I’m bringing the same exact personality and the same exact stuff I do on TV at Good Morning Football that I’m bringing here. Now, maybe we’re not talking about Elton John’s greatest hits, or we’re not necessarily breaking down the latest episode of Love Island, which we would have done on Good Morning Football. And I loved the fact we could.”
There’s also the fact that Schrager could get his own show. However, regarding reports that he might headline a new afternoon show at ESPN, potentially replacing Around the Horn, Schrager says there’s nothing official. Despite the speculation, no concrete conversations have taken place — at least not yet.
For now, Schrager’s focused on what’s in front of him, not what may or may not be coming next.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.