NBC NABS MEN IN BLAZERS FROM ESPN FOR SOCCER COVERAGE

The humorous soccer commentators Michael Davies and Roger Bennet, together known as the Men in Blazers, are leaving ESPN and heading for NBC, another illustration of the growing popularity of soccer in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal reported that the two will have a weekly show on the NBC Sports network on Mondays, the same night that ESPN carries Monday Night Football. They will also be contributing commentaries to NBC Sports’s coverage of the Premier League. "We’re incredibly surprised that they wanted us," Davies told the Journal. "I’m sure [the show] will change, but they seem to like it exactly how it is, which is both shocking and thrilling." Bennet added that NBC plans to build a replica set of the closet from which they broadcast during the World Cup in Brazil. "You can have a beautiful studio and a panoply of talent," Bennett said, "but at the end of the day two gentlemen stuck in a closet for extended periods of time with only a modicum of water and tiny bananas — Americans want to partake in that."