Rob Stone Dishes on Fox Soccer, ESPN, EPL, MLS, Piers Morgan & More

"I'm a flavor of the month. We all are at some point."

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During his long stint at ESPN, Rob Stone was constantly on TV, covering everything from college football to MLS to bowling and everything in between. Stone likened himself to a utility infielder, always ready to be plugged into whatever situation his team needed him for. There is a lot of talent at ESPN, some of which has been at the top for a very long time, with little inclination of moving elsewhere. For someone like Stone, filling the gaps can be a pretty good niche, but it can also be daunting having to cover such a diverse crop of events.

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"It was a thrill and it was a nuisance at the same time. To me it was a lot like doing an all-nighter for finals."

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Now, after leaving the Worldwide Leader during the January transfer window, Stone is the new anchor at Fox Soccer, getting a starting role in an every-day (or at least every-match) position as the new face of Fox Soccer's revamped soccer coverage. He is extremely candid about his new gig at Fox, his time at ESPN and where he thinks the sport of soccer is headed in this country.

Yes, we also touch on Piers Morgan, Arsene Wenger, Landon Donovan and Fox Soccer analyst Eric Wynalda's curious lean. It's a fun show today.

Before we get to the soccer talk, Stone and I cover his time at ESPN where he made sure to express how grateful he was for his long tenure there. Clearly, though, he felt it was the right time to move out:

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"ESPN was great to me. They were my first job out of college. I was cutting highlights and running prompters for the Chris Myers, Dan Patricks, Mike Tiricos, Chris Fowlers of the world. It was grad school for me. I kind of grew up with them, but sometimes you've got to get out of the parents' basement and move on."

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I ask if he felt the Fox Soccer job was "an opportunity of a lifetime" situation or if it was as much his standing at ESPN, stuck under an obvious glass ceiling, that made the decision easier:

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"Probably a lot of everything. Twelve to maybe even nine months ago, the thought of not being at ESPN didn't enter my mind. And Fox came in…

"It was like I was in a long-term relationship and the girlfriend was just kinda wearing the sweats, sitting around the sofa and then this new gal rolled into town next door and she was looking good, and she was working on a Gut-be-Gone and she was at the gym and, man, and she offered me something too nice to turn around and said, 'look, it's time for a change. It's time for a breath of fresh air.'"

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I will never get the image of Wynalda using a Gut-be-Gone out of my mind. To be fair, it's a funnier visual when Piers Morgan is in one.

I do wonder, and did ask, if Stone felt his fun-loving take on the events he covered was perceived as a lack of seriousness by those in charge at ESPN, good for the Saturday afternoon mid-major games but not something that's right for the bigger events:

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"The problem with comedy, or having fun, is one person may think it's humorous and another doesn't. If that other person is higher up the food chain, then you just failed and you bombed.

"I'm a flavor of the month. We all are at some point."

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He did mention that he felt the tenor of ESPN's coverage changed and while he felt he changed with it, he was unable to break out of that mold. All of that led to his move to Fox (though he did stress that family concerns and the ability to see his kids more played as big a role as anything).

We talk about the future of soccer at Fox, wondering if his move coincides with a concerted effort from the network to start gearing up for their eventual World Cup coverage in 2018 and 2022.

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"They are planning right now for the World Cup. They are not going to wait until a year or two or three out. They have it in their brain(s) right now, 'let's get ourselves ratcheted up in front of the camera, and more importantly behind the camera. Let's hit the ground running…'"

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Stone hints at some of the plans in the works for Fox and we discuss his now famous "top that Super Bowl" line after the Manchester United-Chelsea match a few weeks ago. The ratings for that match were not great, and we discuss the slow growth of a soccer audience in America. It's popular, but how much more popular than other traditional Olympic sports like swimming, gymnastics and figure skating can it become in America?

"This is a sport where we can hang a network on."

That's the goal. This is just the start. And that's where the rest of the conversation goes. We talk about the growth of the sport and how the next generation needs to be more involved than we were growing up, without the ability to watch matches from all over the world. We also talk about how MLS fits into that equation.

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"Respect is a big word.

"The concern is how to get those fans and make them appreciate and respect MLS. Respect is a big word because the majority of these international club fans have a very high appreciation for the game and their expectations are A, B, C and D and if for just a glimpse they don't see it in MLS–or, more times than not, they don't even see MLS and they just perceive it be this massively lesser league–if we can't get past that perception, then we are screwed.

"Perception is a big part of everything."

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We talk about where the best place for the top American players should be–overseas against better competition or at home to help grow the game in this country?

I ask if Fox Soccer is going on full-fledged Wenger Watch with its weekly coverage, and how much the studio show will focus on the upcoming EPL coaching carousel (has Andres Villas-Boas been sacked yet?) as opposed to breaking down more match play.

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"It is a sexy topic and it's sexy teams; sexy teams that are having a very un-sexy season right now."

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Speaking of sexy topics, Stone defends the decision to have Piers Morgan on the set, basically blaming the rest of us for caring so much about why he is there.

And, yes, we get in depth on the Wynalda lean. Someone get the guy a V-8.