Boomer Esiason says NFL team attempted to lure him off ‘Monday Night Football’

After learning that the Denver Broncos tried to lure Drew Brees out of retirement earlier this year, Boomer Esiason recalls once fielding a similar pitch.

Adam Schefter shocked the NFL world Monday night, reporting the Broncos checked in on Brees after losing quarterback Bo Nix to an ankle fracture ahead of the 2026 AFC Championship Game. Brees briefly thought about it before quickly realizing his body wasn’t up to the task after one private workout. But it will now be one of the great “what ifs” in NFL history. What if Brees reunited with Sean Payton for the 2026 AFC Championship Game after five years of retirement?

In almost any other season, the idea of luring a former quarterback back to the field after five years of retirement would have seemed like a laughable rumor. But the Indianapolis Colts made that laughable rumor a reality last season, bringing Philip Rivers out of retirement and immediately naming him their starting quarterback.

The Colts did it with Rivers, the Broncos tried it with Brees last season, the St. Louis Rams notably recruited Brett Favre in 2013, and surely other teams have tried to get former star quarterbacks to unretire. Tuesday morning on WFAN, Boomer Esiason revealed the San Diego Chargers similarly approached him about coming out of retirement.

Boomer Esiason says the San Diego Chargers attempted to lure him out of retirement when he was on Monday Night Football with ABC pic.twitter.com/GCaw7uojAF

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“The same thing happened to me when I was at Monday Night Football on ABC,” Esiason said. “Bobby Beathard reached out to me to go play for the San Diego Chargers. I think I thought about it for about three seconds and then I said no.”

Esiason was on ABC’s Monday Night Football for the 1998 and 1999 NFL seasons. It was presumably 1999, when Ryan Leaf was set to miss his sophomore season with a shoulder injury, that the Chargers would have gauged Esiason’s interest. Esiason still looked like he had something left in the tank when he retired after the 1997 NFL season to join Monday Night Football. And broadcast partner Al Michaels probably would have loved for Esiason to take San Diego up on their offer, but the former MVP quarterback ultimately chose not to wear a Chargers jersey.

ABC fired Esiason from its Monday Night Football booth after the 1999 NFL season. Esiason, however, still went on to have a Hall of Fame second career in media, spending 22 seasons as a studio analyst for The NFL Today on CBS, 18 seasons on Monday Night Football for Westwood One, and he just began his 20th year in morning drive for WFAN.

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