Football Night In America just won’t feel the same come September, as former NFL head coach and longtime analyst Tony Dungy announced on Tuesday via X that NBC won’t bring him back for an 18th season. 

“It’s disappointing news but I want to thank my NBC family for making the last 17 years so special.  I’ll have lasting memories of my time there, especially with Rodney Harrison who has become a tremendous friend,” Dungy wrote, referencing the former New England Patriot and Pro Football Hall of Famer who is also an analyst on the show.

Football Night in America is the official name for NBC’s pregame show for the package of Sunday Night Football games it airs each NFL regular season. Like any live studio show for a sporting event, cast changes aren’t unheard of. FNIA’s cast had been mostly stable for years, and by adding former ESPN talent Maria Taylor to a cast that included Dungy, Harrison, and former NFL player Devin McCourty in 2021, it was network TV’s blackest prime-time pregame broadcast.

That said, the cost of live sports broadcast rights has increased significantly since NBC first acquired Sunday Night Football, and that precipitated big changes in how games are watched and for the broadcasts themselves. The NFL paid about $2.6 billion over six years, or $600 million annually, for a package of NFL games, between 2006 and 2011. Its current 11-year deal with the NFL, signed in 2023, is worth $22 billion, or $2 billion annually.

While rights are more expensive, TV networks also have new competition from streaming platforms for the games themselves and for talent. In addition to traditional broadcast competitors CBS and Fox, streamers Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube all broadcast live NFL games last season.

NBC hasn’t said it officially, but the implication is that the more expensive and competitive landscape for live NFL games might squeeze networks to shed on-air talent. The Athletic reported last month that Dungy might be out as NBC planned to revamp FNIA, which for years has had some of its talent in-studio while others were on location at games. The network wants a show where all the talent is in one place, the outlet reported.

Dungy, 70, had a short playing career with the Pittsburgh Steelers before becoming an assistant coach with the team under former head coach Chuck Noll. He went on to serve as head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts, where he and the Chicago Bears’ Lovie Smith became the first Black head coaches to face each other in a Super Bowl in 2007. The Colts won, 29-17, making Dungy the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Besides his TV career, Dungy is known as a devout Christian and author who has penned more than 40 books, from children’s books to titles on marriage and leadership, and his New York Times bestselling memoir, Quiet Strength.