Why is ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter on a PGA Tour broadcast? We asked him
Adam Schefter is going from reporting on the gridiron to covering the action between the ropes on Thursday at the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship.
During the first round, the NFL Insider for ESPN and the most plugged-in man on league happenings will cross over to work as a featured group commentator on ESPN+. He’ll cover Rory McIlroy and Keegan Bradley's group, which tees off at 10:30 a.m. ET.
“It’s going to be fun to get out of my cage and do something I’m not used to,” he told Golfweek during a phone interview. “As much as I love my job – and I do – I love the challenge of being able to experience something new. I did about a half-dozen NBA games as a sideline reporter before the pandemic. It was invigorating and refreshing.”
When he isn’t juggling his multiple cell phones and breaking news on the NFL beat, Schefter says he’s a golf junkie who is tuned into ESPN+ and PGA Tour Live every week. He plays a half-dozen times per year, but when asked to describe his game, said, “Let’s just say I’m better at watching golf than playing golf.”
He said that discussions about him making an appearance on ESPN+ coverage of the Tour have been ongoing for several months. He was asked to pick a few tournaments that interested him. Originally, he debated doing the Truist Championship last month in Philadelphia, but determined it was too soon after the NFL draft and took a rain check. He looked at the schedule and the Travelers, which is played at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., isn’t too far away from the headquarters of "the worldwide leader in sports" in Bristol. He was even able to appear in studio at ESPN on Wednesday.
As for prep before his debut walking the fairways, he said that he hasn’t been cramming.
“It’s not like I had to sit down and study Keegan Bradley and Rory McIlroy. I have a pretty good idea of what they’ve done,” he said. “People are always like what do you do to get ready for (NFL) Sunday? I live my life. I kind of live my job. I feel like I kind of live golf Thursday to Sunday.”
This will be his first time at the Travelers Championship, a signature event on the PGA Tour. But he already attended a tournament this year as a patron at the Masters in April. In accordance with Augusta National rules, he wasn’t able to bring his ever-present phones on property, which led to him getting pranked pretty good.
“I had this one 20-year-old kid come running up to me and he goes, ‘Did you hear about the humongous NFL trade?’” Schefter recounted originally on his podcast. “And my heart dropped. This is on the sixth hole. And I’m like no. And he’s like, ‘I’m only kidding!’ ”
Two months later and it’s still too soon for Schefter to laugh it off. “That’s really not that funny,” he said.
Schefter can’t wait to follow McIlroy, the Masters champ, and Bradley, a past champion at the Travelers and the U.S. Ryder Cup captain. He said he planned to be on site close to three hours before his ‘call time.’ Back in the day, both Pat Summerall and Dick Enberg and more recently Jim Nantz have split time between TV duties with the NFL and golf. Is this a one-and-done or could Schefty be spending part of his off-season on the links?
“I really don’t know,” he said. “I’m thankful and honored they asked me do it. We’ll see how it goes. If I love it, I’d be honored to do it again, but after one round they may say let him go back to his sport. Who knows? If it goes well, maybe we’ll want to do it again. I know the players, I understand the sport, I know how to report something and we’ll see how it goes.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: ESPN Insider Adam Schefter is crossing over from NFL to PGA Tour Live
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