Tom Jackson Leaving ESPN At Dawn Of 2016 NFL Season

NFL Analyst Tom Jackson has been a fixture on football Sunday throughout the country, having sat alongside ESPN host Chris Berman for 29 consecutive seasons.

With Berman’s contract not likely to be picked up by the network after this year, he and Jackson will not make it number 30 together.

Jackson plans to step down from his role on ESPN’s NFL coverage, including the program that serves as the cornerstone of that coverage, NFL Countdown.

Bob Raissman, of the New York Daily News, originally reported Jackson’s inclination to leave the worldwide leader on Monday and Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch confirmed the story on Tuesday.

Jackson reached his decision a couple weeks ago, on his own, reportedly. He was neither asked, nor forced to step down.

TJ joins a laundry list of Countdown hosts that will not be back for 2016.

Cris Carter, Keyshawn Johnson, Mike Ditka and Ray Lewis have all expressed that they will not be appearing on what was the most popular pregame show in America.

Likely, the decrease in that popularity, attributed to the expansive number of pregame programs now airing, contributed to Jackson’s ouster.  Sean Keeley of Awful Announcing, citing Bloomberg, noted in December that ratings for the program were down 13 percent as competition increased across the sports media landscape.

Jackson’s departure makes for a difficult day in Bristol, Connecticut.