Dan Orlovsky could have left ESPN for Fox Sports in 2022, and he just explained his thought process for why he chose to stay with the Worldwide Leader.
Orlovsky, who is an analyst on "NFL Live" and a former quarterback in the league, spoke on the "Sports Media Podcast" with The Athletic's Richard Deitsch on Oct. 16, and cited several reasons for why he decided to remain with Disney's (DIS) -) sports network.
He said that one of the first reasons was location.
"I'd be lying if geography didn't play a part of it," Orlovsky said.
Orlovsky has spent most of his life in Connecticut, grew up in the state and played college football at the University of Connecticut. ESPN's main campus happens to be in Bristol, Connecticut, and it also shoots a lot of content out of nearby New York City. Fox Sports is headquartered in Los Angeles.
But the former NFL quarterback said the main reason he stayed was because of the people he was working with.
"For me, the people at ESPN, specifically at 'NFL Live,' are a big part of it," Orlovsky said.
The "NFL Live" crew, which consists of host Laura Rutledge, former NFL players Marcus Spears and Ryan Clark, and analyst Mina Kimes, has built a reputation of having a great relationship both on and off camera.
"I've had conversations with those guys that I don't know if I've had conversations like that with 10 people in my life," Orlovsky said specifically about Spears and Clark.
Orlovsky cited strong relationships with each of them and even other ESPN mainstays like Mike Greenberg and Stephen A. Smith.
"Greenberg gave me my first opportunity to be on a daytime show at ESPN. Stephen A. Smith calls me and gives me a day on 'First Take' and tells me, 'Go be yourself,'" Orlovsky said.
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It's clear Orlovsky truly values the strength of the relationships. Earlier in the podcast, Orlovsky mentioned how valuable teamwork has been to the success of "NFL Live."
"I've learned to be one of the most important qualities when it comes to being in this business is you better be a good teammate, and have good teammates, because it's a very individualized business and it's a very cutthroat, stab-you-in-the-back, and me-centric business," Orlovsky said.
Orlovsky did say that he has built some great relationships at Fox Sports and had great things to say about the people there. However, he has some "unfinished business" at ESPN which he can strive for around people he's already built strong relationships with.
"I do have goals and I do have aspirations and I do want to go conquer things and I hadn't done that yet," Orlovsky said. "Both offers were really cool and really cool to be a part of and it was a tough decision, and I have to deal with it again, hopefully at some point here. But it was it was probably the people that were the biggest thing."
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