News
Monday Night Football will have former NFL replay VP Russell Yurk as a rules analyst
Yurk is also the head of replay for the Big Ten Conference
Russell Yurk, the former NFL vice president of replay and the current centralized replay supervisor in the Big Ten Conference, is ESPN’s new NFL officiating analyst. Yurk replaces John Parry, who left the ESPN role to join the coaching staff with the Buffalo Bills. Parry left ESPN on good terms and the network was pleased with his work on Monday Night Football. Parry told Football Zebras he simply wished to find a new football challenge.
Yurk deferred to ESPN for comment. The network is expected to make the announcement next week.
Yurk joined the NFL in 2010. He worked as a replay assistant for five seasons, a replay official for one year, and served as vice president of replay beginning in 2017. He took a leave of absence in 2021 and then joined the Big Ten to supervise their centralized replay operations in 2023.
Yurk will continue with his duties in the Big Ten and be in the TV booth on Monday. He will be the fourth officiating analyst for Monday Night Football. Gerald Austin was first hired by ESPN in 2012. Jeff Triplette replaced Austin in 2018. Then, Parry was the officiating analyst, beginning in 2019 after officiating Super Bowl LIII, his third Super Bowl. Parry was the most engaged of the ESPN analysts. He sat in the booth and producers were quick to have him comment on a call. ESPN didn’t wait for a replay challenge to have him contribute.
When Parry announced he was leaving ESPN, we were waiting for the possibility of the network hiring another NFL official off the field to join the booth. Yurk joins Dean Blandino as the only other network officiating analyst that did not spend time on a NFL field making calls. But, Yurk has extensive knowledge of NFL rules and replay mechanics.
Congratulations to Russell Yurk on his new TV role. His debut will be at the Hall of Fame Game next week on ABC and ESPN.
Correction: A previous version of this post misstated Yurk’s title with the Big Ten Conference as a vice president role.
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Anonymous
July 31, 2024 at 6:56 pm
Hall of Fame Game Referee assignments