Carolina Panthers great Greg Olsen may be in line for the top billing that he deserves.
According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, the former tight end and Emmy Award-winning broadcaster is "widely considered by people inside the sports-media industry" to be the favorite to replace Troy Aikman as the color commentator on ESPN's Monday Night Football. Marchand writes:
Olsen has already called one Super Bowl before [Tom] Brady usurped him as Kevin Burkhardt’s Fox partner on its No. 1 team. Olsen has been eager to return to a network’s top perch.
Olsen has only met [Jimmy] Pitaro and [Burke] Magnus once, and it was brief. During last year’s College Football Playoff championship, Olsen’s alma mater, Miami, faced Buck’s Indiana.
At halftime, according
to sources, Olsen visited ESPN’s luxury box to catch up with his former teammate, Dusty Dvoracek, an ESPN college football analyst. In passing, Olsen shook hands with Pitaro and Magnus.
As Marchand notes, Olsen was moved off Fox's A-team two seasons ago in favor of former quarterback Tom Brady—a decision that was met with quite a bit of criticism by NFL fans. He has since been on the No. 2 squad, mostly alongside play-by-play commentator Joe Davis.
Rooted in a contract dispute, Aikman is believed to currently be at odds with ESPN and longtime broadcast partner Joe Buck. So if Aikman does end up breaking off from the worldwide leader, then Olsen may have an opening and, perhaps, a spot on Monday nights.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers great 'widely considered' as favorite to replace Troy Aikman on ESPN's MNF
