Matt Millen Joins ESPN as Football Analyst

Will Contribute Analysis to NFL Studio Shows and Call College Football Games

Former NFL player, executive and broadcaster Matt Millen is joining ESPN as an NFL and college football analyst.  As part of his multi-faceted role, Millen will serve as a college football game analyst during both the regular season and bowls, and he will contribute to ESPN’s NFL studio coverage throughout the year, appearing on Monday Night Countdown, NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPNEWS and other programs.  Millen will also offer analysis on ESPN Radio and other platforms.  He is scheduled to start in August.

As part of Millen’s NFL studio responsibilities, he will travel to the site of each week’s Monday Night Football game, where he will appear alongside Stuart Scott and analyst Steve Young on Monday Night Countdown and the pre- and post-game editions of SportsCenter.  Millen’s involvement in college football will be even more significant in the years ahead when the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) moves to ESPN as part of its new agreement, beginning in 2010.  His specific commentator assignment for the 2009 college season will be determined this summer.

“Matt will play a major role in our NFL and college football coverage and fans will enjoy hearing the strong, candid opinions which have made him one of the absolute best analysts in the business,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. “His addition gives us our deepest roster of NFL experts ever with the four-time Super Bowl champion joining an ESPN lineup that already features Chris Berman and standouts at every position, and with Kirk Herbstreit, Todd Blackledge and Millen you couldn’t ask for a better group of college football analysts.”

Millen added: "I am very excited about this opportunity and I look forward to working with ESPN and the great group of analysts, commentators and production staff who will be my new teammates."

Millen was a member of four Super Bowl championship teams during his 12-year NFL career as a linebacker with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders (1980-88), San Francisco 49ers (1989-90) and Washington Redskins (1991).  A Pro Bowl selection in 1988, Millen finished his career with 11 sacks, nine interceptions and eight fumble recoveries.  A second-round pick (No. 43 overall) in the 1980 NFL Draft by the Raiders, Millen was an All-American defensive tackle in college at Penn State.

Following his playing career, Millen entered the broadcast ranks in 1992 working on NFL games for CBS and later Fox Sports, where he earned much acclaim for his analyst work on Fox's No. 2 broadcast team.  Millen also provided analysis for Monday Night Football games on the Westwood One radio network.

In 2001, Millen left broadcasting to assume the role of team president for the Detroit Lions, where he worked for eight years.  Millen returned to television earlier this year as a guest analyst on NBC's pre-game coverage of Super Bowl XLIII and during the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs.

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