It appears Jay Cutler is headed to football fans' TV screens, but this time, he won't be on the field.
The former Chicago Bears quarterback, who was having a difficult time finding a job on the gridiron, has been hired by Fox, according to Fox Sports' Peter Schrager and ESPN's Jeff Darlington.
"It's official," Schrager tweeted. "Jay Cutler has been hired by @nflonfox . Will join Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis in the booth this season."
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Cutler will officially announce his retirement Friday, but according to Darlington, Cutler said in a statement that "retirement" may not be the right word.
"I don't feel that anyone ever really retires from the NFL," Cutler said in a statement to Darlington. "You are either forced to leave, or you lose the desire to do what's requred to keep going. I'm in between those situations at this point in my life."
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Cutler, who was released by the Bears before the start of free agency, had reportedly been auditioning for TV jobs.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Fox auditioned the quarterback to potentially replace John Lynch in the broadcast booth.
Lynch, who left the network to become the G.M. of the San Francisco 49'ers, is the executive that made a massive trade with the Bears at the NFL Draft, allowing Chicago to take Mitchell Trubisky with the second overall pick.
Even while teams like the Houston Texans have ignored Cutler’s phone calls, the quarterback was still living the high life as he searched for his next landing place. He played in the snow, got caught in a candid moment while standing on his balcony on vacation, and moved his family back to his old stomping grounds in Nashville, and all the while he has insisted that he wanted to continue playing professional football, according to his agent.
And that may not be off the table.
As Darlington reports, there may still be an opportunity for him to return to football "should an ideal team have an unexpected QB need."
Photo Credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
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