Charles Barkley says he turned down offer to join ‘Monday Night Football’ broadcast

Charles Barkley is not joining ESPN’s “Monday Night Football� booth.

The NBA Hall of Famer and TNT basketball analyst recently said he declined a job on the popular NFL broadcast because it would be outside his area of expertise.

“I only comment on basketball,� Barkley said (warning: clip contains profanity) on the April 7 episode of “The Jim Brockmire Podcast.�

“Like, they offered me ‘Monday Night Football.’ I says, ‘I like football, but I ain’t gonna be one of these jackasses to get on TV and act like he know about football.’�

ESPN declined to comment on the record for this story. MNF used a three-person booth in 2020, with Steve Levy on play-by-play plus Brian Griese and Louis Riddick as color commentators.

Barkley wouldn’t have been the first person with seemingly no connection to football to become part of the “MNF� booth. Comedian/political commentator Dennis Miller served as color commentator, joining play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and analyst Dan Fouts, during the 2000 and 2001 seasons, when the show was on ABC.

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April 8, 2021

Barkley did not mention when the job offer took place. Barkley has been in broadcasting since retiring from the NBA in 2000 and “MNF� has been a TV staple for more than half a century, so it could have been decades ago.

There’s also the chance it’s all fiction. After all, Barkley made the mention on a real-life podcast hosted by a fictional character. Actor Hank Azalia played the titular character on the comedy series “Brockmire,� which ran on IFC from 2016 to 2020. Azalia revived the character for the podcast and Barkley was a guest on the first episode.