Derek Jeter has a new job. Sunday, during Fox Sports’ Super Bowl pregame show, Jeter was announced as the network’s newest studio analyst for the coming season. In the Chiefs-Eagles pregame show, Jeter was introduced on-air by FOX broadcasters Curt Menefee, Michael Strahan, and, appropriately, former Yankee Alex Rodriguez, who joked that Jeter would have to pay for dinner in New York City as a “rookie. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that we’d be reunited,” Rodriguez said. “But here we are!” Rodriguez hugged Jeter as he came on stage and presented him with a customized Fox Sports baseball jersey with his name on it. Besides Jeter, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020, David Ortiz and host Kevin Burkhardt will also join the studio team. “I was on set at the World Series in Philadelphia and (David) Ortiz kept showing me his World Series rings. I figured I would join the team and humble him a little bit,” Jeter joked.
During the 2022 postseason, Jeter moonlighted as a studio analyst for FOX and shared an anecdote about one of his biggest rivals. While Jeter is likely to work primarily on baseball, he was asked to predict the Big Game. With a crowd of Chiefs and Eagles jerseys behind him, he decided to answer the question diplomatically. “Look, it’s kind of hard for me to ever pick against [Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes], because, you know, we played against his dad. So, uh, I’m hoping for a good game,” Jeter said. “I’m trying to be politically correct here! This is not my element here, with football fans!”
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Although Jeter and Rodriguez played together for ten years with the New York Yankees, they did not have a close relationship. Jeter acknowledged in his ESPN documentary series “The Captain” last year that the two had grown apart after comments Rodriguez made in a 2001 interview with Esquire magazine. They had been good friends early on during their big league careers. In the five years between 1996 and 2000, Rodriguez credited Jeter’s teammates for winning four World Series titles. However, it appears that the two have put the past behind them. During Rodriguez’s ESPN show, Sunday Night Baseball, Jeter, who won five championships with the Yankees during his 20-year career, said the two had met to discuss the situation.
