{"id":871434,"date":"2026-04-21T21:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871434\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:09:20","slug":"matthew-berry-unlikely-to-return-to-football-night-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871434\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Berry unlikely to return to &#8216;Football Night in America&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Awful Announcing has learned that Matthew Berry is unlikely to return to Football Night in America next season.<\/p>\n<p>Berry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/pressbox\/nfl\/press-releases\/matthew-berry-joins-nbc-sports-debuting-tonight-on-special-football-night-in-america-at-7-p-m-et-on-nbc-and-peacock\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joined NBC in August 2022<\/a> on a multi-year deal after 15 years at ESPN, where <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/matthew-berry-announces-espn-departure-after-15-years.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he left<\/a> partly because <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/matthew-berry-fantasy-life-brand-competition.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the network wanted him to shut down his Fantasy Life brand<\/a> as a condition of staying. NBC gave him room to build both, with a contributor role on Football Night in America, weekly and daily fantasy football shows on Peacock in Fantasy Football Happy Hour and Fantasy Football Pregame, <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nbc\/matthew-berry-peacock-fantasy-football-pregame-affiliates.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an hour of his Sunday show picked up by NBC\u2019s owned-and-operated affiliates<\/a> in 11 major markets, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nbc\/matthew-berry-fantasy-life-rotoworld.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">formal partnership between Fantasy Life and NBC\u2019s Rotoworld operation<\/a> that went into effect in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>In August, <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/fantasy-sports\/matthew-berry-ends-love-hate-column-25-years.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Berry ended his iconic 25-year Love\/Hate column<\/a>, citing the toll it took and a desire to refocus on what mattered to him outside of football.<\/p>\n<p>His exit comes amid a significant reshaping of Football Night in America. Tony Dungy <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nbc\/tony-dungy-confirms-out-football-night-in-america.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed his departure<\/a> from the show earlier this offseason, and <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nbc\/changes-football-night-in-america-coming-soon.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Awful Announcing reported in February<\/a> that Rodney Harrison and Jac Collinsworth were also unlikely to return as NBC moved toward a streamlined set that would travel on location each week. This morning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7215273\/2026\/04\/21\/mike-tomlin-nbc-sunday-nfl-steelers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Athletic\u2019s Andrew Marchand reported<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nfl\/mike-tomlin-joining-nbc-football-night-in-america.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tomlin has agreed to join NBC as the new centerpiece of the studio show<\/a> alongside Maria Taylor, Jason Garrett, and Devin McCourty, with Mike Florio specifically noted as expected to return.<\/p>\n<p>While Berry did not respond to multiple requests for comment, sources indicated to Awful Announcing that Berry\u2019s contract has not yet expired and that discussions about his return are ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>The door is not shut on Berry returning to NBC in some capacity, but any new deal would likely be a streamlined role that does not include weekly appearances on Football Night in America. With the NFL\u2019s media rights now split across more platforms than ever and sports betting and fantasy football content only growing in demand, Berry is unlikely to be short on options heading into next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Awful Announcing has learned that Matthew Berry is unlikely to return to Football Night in America next season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[58870,7,13528,8211,1372,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-871434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-fantasy-life","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-football-night-in-america","11":"tag-matthew-berry","12":"tag-nbc-sports","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116444751815305995","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}