A former New York football star appears headed to the NFL broadcast booth this fall, reportedly to work alongside a fellow Big Apple on-air icon.
The New York Post reports that FOX Sports will sign ex-Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma to be a game analyst on their NFL broadcasts, and that he is likely to work with Kenny Albert, who is no stranger to the Gotham scene as a play-by-play man for both Knicks and Rangers broadcasts.
Vilma had been at ESPN/ABC, where he was working on their college football pregame broadcasts alongside fellow ex-Jet Mark Sanchez and making appearances on various shows throughout the week. According to The Post, FOX likes the idea of pairing veteran Albert with rookie Vilma, whose only in-booth experience seems to be an assignment on the 2018 Boca Raton Bowl.
The 38-year-old would, should he work with Albert, be replacing Ronde Barber, whose contract was not renewed by FOX. However, the network could also pair Vilma with a familiar face in Adam Amin, who is also reportedly leaving ESPN to join the FOX NFL team as a play-by-play man, and it does have another analyst slot open alongside No. 2 play-by-play man (and former SNY Mets reporter) Kevin Burkhardt; Charles Davis, Burkhardt's 2019 NFL partner, has moved to CBS, and Greg Olsen, who cut his on-air teeth this past winter working with Burkhardt on XFL games, decided to play another season and signed with the Seahawks.
Vilma, a former national champion at the University of Miami, was selected No. 12 overall by the Jets in 2004 and spent four seasons with Gang Green, being named the 2004 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year and earning a Pro Bowl berth after leading the NFL with 169 tackles in 2005.
The Jets traded him to the Saints in February 2008 and he spent his final six seasons in New Orleans, where he earned two more Pro Bowl nods and was part of the Saints' Super Bowl XLIV Championship team, but was more infamously implicated in the Bountygate scandal, earning a one-year suspension that was eventually overturned, reinstated and overturned again.
His media career began almost immediately after retiring in 2014, and Vilma served as a studio analyst for NBC's coverage of Notre Dame Football prior to joining ESPN in 2016.
