Former NFL defensive end Chris Long has made the jump to podcasting as host of BlueWire’s sports show The Green Light and American Prodigy: Becoming Great. But unlike lots of former players, Long says he has no intention of parlaying his sports and media career into TV. Podcasting, he says, suits him just fine.
“Being on TV, I get really uncomfortable performing,” said Long. “I don’t like performing and I don’t like being told what to say. Here, that never happens. For the most part, I think finding your groove in this side of things is just having conversations,” he said on the latest episode of The Season with Peter Schrager podcast. “And honestly, the couple of times I’ve been on TV, I don’t like the attention,” he said. Long is the son of former NFL player and Fox Sports analyst Howie Long. He followed his father’s career path into the media when he launched The Green Light in October 2019 with his best friend, Macon, and Awful Announcing says the BlueWire show has had more than 10 million downloads to date.
Long told Schrager that he has “been at a crossroads at times” as far has where his media career should go. But as Awful Announcing first reported, the TV work seems like a sports debate found on Twitter or the barber shop for him. “I’m over arguing with people,” he said.
Despite the changing podcast economics that has meant lucrative podcast deals are harder to find, Long still thinks it’s worth making “a little less” than what a TV deal would offer. “The world of podcasting has gotten better where the money is very good,” he said.