When last we left Dan Orlovsky, he was signing off from TV "for a long time." It was just after the Super Bowl, and so due to the lack of context and the portion on the calendar, no one knew if that meant he was going to seriously pursue coaching after saying he was "very much interested" in it back in 2022, or if he was simply going on vacation with no new football to analyze, or if there was some secret third thing he was considering. Like I said, it was an oddly emotional moment. Perhaps Orlovsky was just tired from putting in a lot of hours analyzing a long football season.
Turns out, Orlovsky was back on ESPN's airwaves not long after that, and now he's set to remain there for the foreseeable future.
The Athletic's Andrew Marchand reported Tuesday Orlovsky has agreed in principle to a contract that will keep him at ESPN. The move comes after he held talks with CBS to replace Gary Danielson as its lead college football analyst following Danielson's upcoming retirement.
Instead, Orlovsky will continue his role as a panelist on NFL Live, an analyst on the Monday Night Football B team, and as a talking head on ESPN's various studio shows. Together with Laura Rutledge, Ryan Clark, Mina Kimes and Marcus Spears, Orlovsky celebrated a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Daily Studio Show, the first time NFL Live (which went on the air in 1998) has won the award.
Moreover, the 41-year-old Orlovsky told Dan Patrick last month that his interest in coaching has "subsided."
"I’ve got three seventh-grade boys. I’ve got a fourth-grade girl. My wife likes living where we live. We’ve made really great friends in town," he said. "I don’t have the desire to uproot that with a want, rather than a need. Unfortunately, some people have to do that because it’s their only choice.”
Orlovsky also said that his loss to Charles Barkley in the Best Analyst category fueled his desire to remain in television.
“Everyone’s like, ‘It’s an honor to be nominated.’ I get that. But I wanted to win that," he recalled. "And when [Charles] Barkley won, I texted him, like, ‘What the heck, dude?’ And I was bummed. I was bummed. My wife, I was like, ‘I want to go.’ I was being a sore loser, a baby. I want to win that one day. I really do. It’s been really cool to be a part of the team that won. And I love what I’m doing right now.”