NFL TV Talkers: Crossing Over From the Field Is No Easy Task

When NBC hired Rodney Harrison as an analyst for its flagship NFL broadcast last year, the network wanted him to be brutally honest while breaking down the good -- and bad -- about the men who perform on Sundays.

Harrison's unusual level of frankness as a player had caught the eye of NBC's talent evaluators.

"We knew he was very honest and poignant," NBC Sports coordinating producer Molly Solomon says, "and he was just a really smart guy. And that's going to translate to the television screen. And it did, just automatically, his first year."

Harrison seemed to make as many headlines with his insights in 2009 as he had as a player in previous years. Within his first month on the job, he engaged in a spat with then-Buffalo Bills wideout Terrell Owens (whom he called selfish and "a clown") and chided his former teammate, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, to "take off the skirt" after a series of questionable roughing-the-passer penalties.

But the ease with which Harrison made the difficult turn from player to analyst was best illustrated by his reaction to one of the biggest mistakes of the season, committed by his former boss, Bill Belichick.

Harrison ripped Belichick after the Patriots coach eschewed a punt with a six-point lead against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 15 and 2:08 remaining in favor of a failed fourth-and-2 try from his 28. Harrison called it "the worst decision I've ever seen Bill Belichick make" from NBC's studios minutes after the call and the Colts' subsequent game-winning touchdown.

It was a public rebuke of a man who, just five months prior upon Harrison's retirement, had called him one of the best players he had ever coached. "That's what you have to do," Harrison says. "My No. 1 loyalty is to the fan, not the team or players I played with."

Many who cross from the NFL to the media struggle with that transition from football player -- where they are trained not to tell the truth and to refrain from being critical of others -- to TV analyst, where candor thrives.

"As a player, you can't say certain things because you're a teammate or because of the organization," former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter says. "But when you become an analyst, you've got to speak the truth."

As a player, Harrison prided himself on being a "straight shooter," and he's carried that philosophy to TV.

"I really didn't have to change much in terms of my personality," he says.

NBC producer Sam Flood told Harrison he wanted him to treat his role as a Football Night in America analyst as if he were sitting with a group of friends talking about football.

"The No. 1 thing (Flood) said to us was he didn't want us to change who we were," Harrison says. "Me being a very aggressive player, I'm just naturally bringing that to (TV)."