The main reason WWE has replaced Jonathan Coachman with Mick Foley as the Smackdown color announcer is because Coachman has been quietly telling people for awhile now that he wants to leave the company to focus on sports broadcasting and WWE wanted to be ready incase he did leave. He recently interviewed with ESPN and had been doing additional broadcast work for both the MSG Network and CBS' College sports broadcasts of late.

And now, I can report that ESPN has actually hired Coachman as an anchor. Most in WWE believe that Coachman will finish up with WWE soon, if he hasn't already. No word yet on when Coachman will debut with ESPN.