Two weeks after ESPN 980 introduced Clinton Portis as its newest Redskins analyst, 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday announced that Hall of Famer John Riggins will provide radio commentary about his former team two days a week throughout the season.
Beginning Aug. 14, the day after the Redskins’ first preseason game, Riggins will join The Fan’s Chad Dukes on his regularly scheduled show for an hour every Friday at 5 p.m. During the regular season, Riggins will also join Dukes on Mondays at 5 p.m. to review Sunday’s game and co-host a show with Grant Paulsen from 6 to 7:45 p.m. leading up to The Fan’s “Monday Night Football” coverage.
Riggins, one of the more colorful personalities in Redskins history and the only player ahead of Portis on the franchise’s all-time rushing list, says his role will be part analyst, part entertainer.
“I really think people probably want to know how the team is doing,” Riggins said Wednesday. “There’s moments where you throw in a little yesteryear. I’ll tell you, I go for the laughs. I slept through the meetings when I was a player, so I don’t know a lot about football, but I know a lot about people. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be entertaining. And there may be a little information in there somewhere.”
Riggins’ last regular gig as an analyst was during the 2011 season, when he provided commentary, often critical of Mike and Kyle Shanahan, for WTOP and MASN. Since then, he has starred in a hunting and cooking show called “Riggo on the Range” that debuted on the Sportsman Channel and later aired on Comcast SportsNet. He filmed a pilot episode for a show called “Brew Stories” — synopsis: Riggins travels the country in search of the perfect beer — but, somehow, it hasn’t been picked up.
“I needed to make a paycheck,” Riggins said of his return to radio. “‘Riggo on the Range’ was great and I had a lot of fun. I can’t thank [producer] Art Major enough, but it just wasn’t commercially successful like we hoped. When the opportunity [to join 106.7] came along, I was more than willing to share my opinion with the fans.”
“We’re excited about it,” 106.7 The Fan program director Chris Kinard said. “…From our discussions, he’s really been paying attention [to the Redskins] and always kind of keeping an eye on what’s going on with the team and the direction the team’s going in.”
Riggins plans to attend the first of the Redskins’ three joint practices with the Houston Texans in Richmond on Thursday. He said he’ll be monitoring the team’s attitude because “that will probably tell you more than anything how they’ll do.” Riggins has followed the Redskins’ offseason moves, including the hiring of GM Scot McCloughan, but he’s hesitant to allow himself to be too optimistic about their chances for improvement.
“Wouldn’t you really say that we went through this with Mike Shanahan?” Riggins said of the almost universal praise that followed McCloughan’s hiring. “Who would’ve thought that that would’ve turned out the way it did? Nobody. They’re bringing in one guy. Is he going to be the lightning rod? Perhaps, but who knows? … People talk about what might happen. We know from the past that they’re guilty until proven innocent. That’s what you go in with. Then, if anything changes, you’re pleasantly surprised. It’s not being overly pessimistic, it’s just being realistic.”
Credit to the Washington Post who originally published this article.
