BOSTON, MA – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, announced today that former New England Patriot linebacker Ted Johnson will join the network as a regular contributor to NESN SportsDesk this football season. He will join anchor Cole Wright, reporter Kathryn Tappen, Mike Reiss and The Providence Journal’s Shalise Manza Young as regular contributors this season.
“Ted adds the perspective of a player who has been through the daily grind of the NFL,” said Joel Feld, NESN’s executive vice president of programming and executive producer. “His on field experience will be a perfect complement to our deep team of talented reporters and helps us meet our objective of delivering even more in-depth Patriots coverage this season.”
Johnson will regularly team up with Reiss on Saturdays for a look ahead at the coming week’s game followed by a Sunday or Monday appearance to analyze what happened in that week’s game. Johnson and Reiss will also team up for a mid-week report to provide commentary on the latest Patriots and NFL news.
Johnson played 10 years for the Patriots and was a member of three Super Bowl Championship teams. He was drafted by the Patriots in the 2nd round of the 1995 NFL draft after attending the University of Colorado. He retired before the 2005 season after sustaining multiple concussions throughout his career. He served one season as a football analyst for WBZ-TV and is currently teaching at Suffolk University.
NESN.com is also ramping up its coverage of the Patriots with regular columns from Kathryn Tappen and Boston Metro reporter Jeff Howe. Howe will write a preview and live blog for every Patriots regular-season game, as well as provide news, analysis and feature stories over the course of the season.
About NESN
NESN is owned by the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins and is delivered to over four million homes throughout the six-state New England region and nationally via DirecTV and Dish Network. The definitive home for New England sports programming, NESN is the television home of the Red Sox and Bruins and is the highest rated regional sports network in the country. The network and its website, NESN.com, produce award winning content including NESN SportsDesk, a daily sports news program, over 100 NESN University college sporting events annually and distinctive Original NESN Entertainment (ONE) productions.
