CBS
Welcomes Dierdorf Home
NEW YORK (AQB)--CBS Sports, with open arms and a reported $1 million in its hands, welcomed home NFL analyst Dan Dierdorf (right) 12 years after he left for ABC's Monday Night Football. The 49-year-old will team with Verne Lundquist on CBS' No. 2 broadcasting team, a step down for the analyst who has talked to more football viewers during the past 12 regular seasons than any other football announcer. "Initially, I thought there was no way I could do that. ‘Hey, you’re Dan Dierdorf. You’ve been doing Monday Night Football for 12 years,’" Dierdorf said in a conference call Wednesday. "Once you’ve done Monday Night Football, there’s a little something in the back of your head that goes, ‘Well, what the heck am I ever going to do to top this?’” "In many ways, this is a real breath of fresh air for me. I get to do what I really like to do, and that’s just do a football game. I don’t have to worry about all the politics and all the - in some ways - unwarranted scrutiny that comes with doing something like Monday Night Football. "That was a fabulous run, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. But I have a feeling that I’m going to get back to basics here and have a lot more fun than even I realize." Dierdorf knows the size of the audience isn't the only difference between Monday night and Sunday afternoon. "It’s a different way of doing football on Sunday afternoons. Monday night is unique. Monday night, in its presentation, is much more stylized, is much less X's and O's-oriented. And certainly I’ll be getting back to more football basics on Sunday afternoon." The signing of Dierdorf clears the way for CBS to move Lundquist's partner from last year, Randy Cross, to The NFL Today studio show, where he will join host Jim Nantz and new analysts Craig James and Jerry Glanville. CBS Sports President Sean McManus is happy with the network's moves. “I said about a year ago that our goal was to put together the best NFL talent team in history, and I think adding Dan to our lineup is a major step in that direction. I know this is a very good opportunity for Dan, but believe me, it’s an even better opportunity for CBS." The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Dierdorf is expected to make about $1 million a year at CBS, down from his $1.75 million annual salary at ABC. CBS officials, who had said publicly since January that they weren't interested in Dierdorf, deliberately waited until after the NCAA Tournament and The Masters to make the announcement. “The fact that we are making this announcement today has nothing to do with a delay. It happens to do with the timing that we wanted to have all along." Dierdorf, for his part, had hinted earlier this year that he might sit out this season; however, he said Wednesday that CBS changed his mind. "I was strongly committed to not working this fall, partly because of the way that I left ABC. I just didn’t think that anything would flip my switch. That was a less-than-happy time for me, and I just didn’t think anything would make me feel good about going back into television. "Then, quite frankly, all my friends at CBS that I worked with before - that I respect - really went out of their way to convince me that this was a good move for me, and that it was the smart thing for me to do." Dierdorf said he doesn't feel awkward about returning to CBS, which he left in 1987 because he never signed the network's contract. "That was a pretty good story when I left 12 years ago," the Hall of Fame offensive lineman said. "It really was nobody’s fault. It was an unfortunate thing for CBS at the time because I think they would have preferred to keep me." And now they have him back. Click here to read more quotes from the conference call. Photo courtesy of ABC.com. Back
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