College Football announcer reveals real reason behind retirement

Gary Danielson will call time on his announcing career at the end of the 2025/26 college football season. CBS announced on Wednesday that the upcoming CFB season will be his last in the booth.

Danielson has been a regular on the CBS broadcast over the past two decades, but he will step aside soon. Per The Spun, the veteran announcer revealed the reason for his impending retirement.

"I have been nominated for Emmys six times but I never won, but that remains an honor for a college announcer to get that," Danielson said. "So, it has been seamless to the Big Ten; the Big Ten treated us royally. It was fantastic. When I was playing, I missed a lot of what my kids were doing. When I was working at ESPN and ABC, I missed every one of my son’s high school football, most of my daughter’s volleyball games as well. And now my grandkids were starting into high school; they’re all here locally."

He concluded,

"This might be the perfect time (to retire). I really felt that I would rather leave a couple years early than one year late, where people start saying ‘He does not have it. He should have retired.’ And I have the ability to do that, to walk away. Everything feels fine."

Hence, Gary Danielson is leaving the game before the game leaves him. He believes he has given all he can to announcing, and the end of the upcoming CFB season would be the best time to bow out.

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What is Gary Danielson's college football legacy?

From 1970 to 1972, Gary Danielson completed 178 of 390 passes for 2,748 yards, with 14 touchdowns and 30 interceptions while playing for Purdue.

At the pro level, Danielson's career included stints in the Canadian Football League, World Football League and National Football League before retiring after the 1988 NFL season.

Gary Danielson promptly entered the world of broadcasting. He started on WDIV-TV in Detroit before joining ESPN in 1990. The former CFB quarterback called games for ESPN and ABC until 2006, after which he joined the CBS Sports team.

The announcer has spent two decades with CBS, becoming arguably the face of the network's college football coverage. Per ESPN, Charles Davis will take over from Danielson as CBS's lead analyst next year, marking the end of Gary Danielson's iconic announcing career.