Former Cowboys HC Jason Garrett gets booth job for USFL games

Garrett will join NBC’s crew as an analyst for the first season of the newly-relaunched USFL; the regular season starts Saturday. | From @ToddBrock24f7

To use a phrase from his own parlance, Jason Garrett loves ball. The former Cowboys backup quarterback, offensive coordinator, and head coach enjoys nothing more than to talk Xs and Os, drawing from a lifetime of learning about the game at every level to dissect what’s happening- and what should happen- on the field.

And now he’ll be paid to do it in the broadcast booth.

Garrett will serve as an analyst for NBC’s coverage of the USFL season, it was announced Tuesday. Jac Collinsworth and Paul Burmeister will lead the crew, with Garrett joined by Michael Robinson and Cameron Jordan in analyst roles. Zora Stephenson and Corey Robinson will act as sideline reporters, while Sara Perlman will host halftime and postgame coverage.

Fox will simulcast the league’s games and have its own crew: Curt Menefee and Joel Klatt as the voices of the game with Kevin Kugler handling play-by-play calls, and Brock Huard and onetime Cowboys quarterback Mark Sanchez doing analysis.

Garrett spent two decades in the Cowboys organization, the first seven as player. He earned two Super Bowl rings with the dynasty teams of the 1990s behind Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman. As a third-string option, Garrett memorably got the start for 1994’s Thanksgiving Day game, leading Dallas to a dramatic comeback win over the Packers.

He returned to Dallas in 2007 as the team’s new offensive coordinator after having spent two seasons as quarterbacks coach in Miami. On the Cowboys sidelines, he moved up the ranks to gain an assistant head coach title in 2008. In 2011, he took over when head coach Wade Phillips was fired after eight games and guided the Cowboys to a 5-3 record to close out the season.

The Princeton grad was named the eighth head coach in Cowboys history for the team’s 2021 season. His contract was not renewed following the 2019 season; Garrett had compiled an 85-67 record as Cowboys head coach, 2-3 in the playoffs.

Garrett was then hired as offensive coordinator for the Giants, but was dismissed before the 2021 season was over. He was rumored to be the front-runner for the head job at Duke University; the school ultimately went a different direction.

The newly-relaunched USFL will kick off its season on Saturday. All eight teams will play their entire schedule of regular-season games in one of two stadiums in Birmingham, Alabama. Postseason contests will be played in Canton, Ohio, with the championship game slated for July 3.

The Cowboys have several former players on USFL rosters. Former Dallas assistant Todd Haley will coach the Tampa Bay Bandits. Longtime Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston is the league’s executive vice president of football operations.

And Garrett, Johnston’s former Cowboys teammate, will be giving his thoughts on all of it with a bird’s-eye view, a headset, and a live television audience.

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