Charles Woodson says timing of his leaving ESPN and Raiders DB coach job opening ‘purely coincidence’

Welp. It was a fun while it lasted. The visions of Charles Woodson coaching the Raiders cornerbacks in camp and on the sideline during the season. But this morning, after we wondered out loud if maybe, possibly, could it be that the timing of his leaving ESPN and the Raiders Defensive Backs coach position opening up was more than a coincidence, CWood said nope.

From the moment he retired, Raiders fans had hopes he might get into coaching. But he was destined to be an on-air talent and ESPN scooped him up immediately after he retired. He barely had time to take off his pads and get a shower in before donning a suit and getting behind the ESPN desk as an analyst.

When he said this week that he was saying goodbye to ESPN after three seasons, my immediate response again was to say he was very likely leaving to take a job elsewhere in television. But the next day when Raiders DB coach Derrick Ansley took a job as Co-Defensive Coordinator at Tennessee, suddenly I was forced to question my belief in Charles’s career choices. And it was an exciting thought, if I’m being honest.

While his words don’t absolutely rule out that he would return to the sideline, it seems unlikely he would make that statement if he was.