Adam Schefter, ESPN Agree to New Contract: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

Sports fans should be prepared to see a lot more of Adam Schefter on their television sets.

The NFL insider has agreed to a five-year extension with ESPN, where he will have an expanded role, ESPN confirmed Thursday after Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch first reported the agreement on Wednesday.

"From the day ESPN hired me, it has been a life-transforming experience," Schefter said in the release. "There hasn’t been a single day that has passed when I haven’t been grateful and thankful to ESPN for giving me that chance, for getting to work with such great people all across the company and for getting to do a dream job. I look forward to doing it for many years to come."

The 49-year-old will host a new podcast that is set to debut in January, work as a sideline reporter at NBA games when there is a lull in his NFL responsibilities and also work alongside Lisa Salters for ESPN's NFL Wild Card Weekend telecast in 2017, per Deitsch. 

While the NFL duties are expected for the man who has been breaking some of the league's biggest news for more than a decade, his foray into the NBA was unexpected, as he explained to The MMQB’s Peter King (via Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post):

"

The funny thing is, I never had any interest in the NBA. Growing up I did. Growing up, I loved watching the Knicks and Bernard King, and I would listen to Marv Albert in my room on the radio, ’cause nobody’s better at doing a game than Marv Albert. But literally from the time I was a freshman in college, I lost track, forgot and couldn’t care less about the NBA. And then — I don’t even know how all this started — but a couple of years ago, I played these $3 DraftKings games, like, just started doing it.

I didn’t know a single player, but then you start studying the statistics like a stock chart almost, and you start programming your life.

"

Deitsch noted that the podcast and NBA gig were incentives to keep him at ESPN, adding that his representatives at CAA "had leverage, given Schefter has established himself as a premier brand when it comes to NFL news breaking."

It looks like Schefter was content with the offer and will stick with ESPN until at least 2022.