Former Safety Darren Sharper is one of 4 new former players who officially join NFL network this season. I hate writing “former” cause it makes me feel old. ugh!

Both Donovan McNabb and Darren Sharper have been fabulous on television in my opinion. It looks like the NFL network agrees cause they announced they’ve both been hired yesterday. Or maybe the NFL network is like every other network who will hire any star whether they’re good or not. Either way, they have two winners here. 

McNabb is very sharp, but Sharper is even better to me. The thing I like about Sharp is that he doesn’t bash current players but he doesn’t kiss their asses either. He has a balanced approach to commentating I think people will enjoy assuming he keeps up the same style he brought during his appearances on the network last season.

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Sharper’s primary gig on NFL network as it stands will be on the NFL GameDay Scoreboard show that airs on Sundays at 4pm. Unfortunately most of us are watching football and not NFL network at that time but hopefully Sharper’s role will be expanded beyond that with additional appearances on other shows. If they can give Deion Sanders (who is really at his best interviewing players not commentating) and Marshall Faulk (who is just awful all around) face time they should be able to throw Sharper some additional bones. He probably should have been on the NFL’s new daily morning show NFL AM which is a solid show but with a cast of characters I never can remember.  

McNabb will be an analyst on NFL Playbook which is probably the most Xs and Os focused show the NFL has and my favorite thing to watch on the network besides SoundFX. The NFC edition of Playbook comes on Fridays at 8:00 PM ET  and then theres’s a 9:00 PM ET show that covers the AFC. On its face, this seems like a good fit for McNabb provided he’s as knowledgable about the game as typically seems. I’m looking forward to learning some good stuff from him. 

Also included in the NFL network’s release on new hires are LaDainian Tomlinson and Shaun O’Hara. I have a wait and see approach on those two. I’m not quite sure what they bring to the table yet. Once I see them an action I’ll return with an opinion.