'Inside the NFL' Hosts Named James Brown, Phil Simms and Cris Collinsworth will host "Inside the NFL" when it moves to Showtime in the fall. Brown hosts the CBS pregame show on Sundays, while Simms is the network's lead analyst. Collinsworth is a holdover from the program's previous run on HBO and also works for NBC and NFL Network. CBS Sports chief Sean McManus said Monday in announcing the hosts that a fourth person will join them each week. Whether it will be another full-time analyst or a rotating current or former player has yet to be determined. The show will be produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films. CBS owns Showtime. -- The Associated Press
The network announced Monday that it had hired Patrick, hoping the recapture the chemistry that hooked viewers to ESPN's "SportsCenter" during the pair's run from 1992-97.
"It was seamless. We never tried to understand why it worked," Patrick said on a conference call. "It just did."
Patrick joins the returning cast of NBC's studio show that includes Olbermann and host Bob Costas. Patrick said the idea originated in casual conversations with Costas, some of whose highlight duties he will take.
Patrick's discussions with NBC initially took place last summer. But his then-employer, ESPN, invoked a clause in Patrick's contract and barred him from covering the NFL or Olympics on TV for a year, said NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol.
Since leaving ESPN in August, Patrick has hosted a radio show and written for Sports Illustrated.
Patrick will work Super Bowls that NBC broadcasts and will participate in the network's Olympic coverage starting with the Winter Games in 2010.
Olbermann recalled that their old SportsCenter shows were an "attempt by him to crack me up or by me to crack him up."
"As long as we kept that undercurrent going," Olbermann said, "we knew it would be entertaining for the audience."
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