Robert Griffin III still has a couple of football games left on his broadcast schedule.
With the college football regular season completed, Griffin will call his first NFL game on Sunday for Fox Sports when the New Orleans Saints host the Carolina Panthers.
The 2011 Heisman Trophy winner has had a solid first year with Fox, teaming up with Jason Benetti to form the network’s No. 2 college football crew.
However, the fact that Griffin will be calling an NFL game at the Superdome has special meaning for him.
“My family is rooted in New Orleans. The first time I suited up in the NFL was in New Orleans. The first time I put on a headset as a NFL game broadcaster is in New Orleans too," he said. "God has a way of bringing you back to your roots to remind you who you are.”
Griffin was the second overall pick by Washington in the 2012 NFL Draft. He won the starting job and passed for 320 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-32 win over the Saints in Week 1. Griffin led Washington to its first playoff appearance since 2007 and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year before suffering a severe knee injury in the playoffs.
He would spend four seasons with Washington, before going to Cleveland in 2016. After not playing in 2017, he spent three seasons with Baltimore (2018-20).
Griffin joined ESPN in 2021 as a college football game analyst and for studio work on NFL coverage. That included two years as an analyst on “Monday Night Countdown.” in 2022 and '23.
He was let go by ESPN before the start of the 2024 season as part of the network's budget cuts. He was off television for most of last season before being hired by Fox during the spring to be a college football analyst.
Griffin said being out of the booth last year wasn't difficult because it allowed him to spend time with his family, including coaching his daughter's flag football team, along with the opportunity to launch his own podcast — Outta Pocket with RGIII — with his wife, Grete. He also coached some high school prospects with a team in the OT7 football league.
He was a studio analyst for Netflix's Christmas Day doubleheader last year before Fox called a couple months later when Brock Huard decided to step away as an analyst.
“Being out and away from it showed me that the passion to do it never waned. Fox was the first place that I auditioned and immediately saw my ability both in the broadcast booth and also in studio. I wanted to make sure when I came over that I gave them my best foot forward,” he said.
Benetti will again be calling the game with Griffin on Sunday. Sarah Kustok will be part of the crew as the field reporter after Alexa Landestoy was the reporter during college football games.
Griffin and Benetti established quick chemistry from the first game despite not working together before.
“We teach football, we have fun, and we’re having conversations as if we’re just two guys at the bar knocking a couple back, having fun enjoying the game. And to me, that’s what makes it so fun. It does not feel like a job. It feels like we’re in our element of telling these guys stories the right way and getting to what the fans actually want to know about,” Griffin said. “Jason understands timing and when to get a story in and how to set up his analyst. And I work hard to ensure that no matter where Jason wants to go, I can go there with him.”
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FILE -Former NFL quarterback and current sports commentator, Robert Griffin III, on the field before an NCAA football game between Colorado and TCU on Oct. 4, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Mike Buscher), File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold urgent talks Thursday with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that are supporting Kyiv’s effort to obtain fair terms for an end to the war with Russia.
The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those expected to take part in the meeting of Ukraine's allies, dubbed the Coalition of the Willing, via video link.
Zelenskyy indicated the talks were hastily arranged as Kyiv officials scramble to avoid getting boxed in by U.S. President Donald Trump's demands for a swift settlement. European governments are trying to help steer the peace negotiations because they say their own security is at stake.
Trump said Wednesday that he and European leaders discussed proposals by phone in “pretty strong terms,” adding that Zelenskyy “has to be realistic” about his country’s position on a peace plan that would cede Ukrainian territory to Russia. He didn't elaborate.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that he, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to Trump that they finalize the peace proposals together with U.S. officials over the weekend. There may also be talks in Berlin early next week, with or without American officials, he said.
The main issue to be resolved is “what territories and concessions Ukraine is prepared to make,” Merz added.
“The work we are doing together remains extremely difficult. There is a very simple reason for this. President Putin is relentlessly continuing his brutal war against the Ukrainian civilian population, and at the same time he is clearly playing for time in the negotiations,” Merz said.
There are signs that the negotiations are coming to a crossroads. The talks are at “a critical moment,” European leaders said in a statement Wednesday.
Next week, Ukraine will coordinate with European countries on a bilateral level, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday, and European Union countries are due to hold a regular summit in Brussels at the end of next week.
Trump’s latest effort to broker a settlement is taking longer than he wanted. He initially set a hard deadline for Kyiv to accept his peace plan before Thanksgiving. Previous Washington deadlines for reaching a peace deal have also passed without making a breakthrough.
Russia is also keen to show Trump it is engaging with his peace efforts, hoping to avoid any further U.S. sanctions. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Russia has relayed to Washington “additional proposals … concerning collective security guarantees” that Ukraine and Europe say are needed to deter future aggression.
“We understand that when discussing security guarantees, we cannot limit ourselves to Ukraine alone,” Lavrov said. He didn’t offer details of the Kremlin's proposals.
Putin has framed Europe as an obstacle to a peace settlement, and Lavrov again accused Europe of seeking to prolong the war.
He charged that Western Europe “is only thinking about a ceasefire, catching its breath, and once again preparing Zelenskyy” for war.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea for the first time, according to an official in the Security Service of Ukraine who was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The oil rig is located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, and belongs to Russia’s second biggest oil company, Lukoil, the official told The Associated Press. The rig took four hits, halting the extraction of oil and gas from over 20 wells, he said.
Also, Ukraine launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the nearly four-year war overnight, forcing flights in and out of all four Moscow airports to be halted for seven hours. Airports in eight other cities across Russia also faced restrictions, Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said Thursday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted 287 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions.
The display of Ukraine’s military capability to strike deep inside Russia appeared as a counter to the Kremlin’s argument that its invasion is overwhelming for its smaller neighbor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength, analysts say. But since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured only around 20% of Ukraine.
Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A worker walks in front of a production hall after a recent Russian missile attack at DTEK's power plant in Ukraine, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
