How Pickerington North star and NFL tight end Jake Butt’s journey has landed him back in the game again
Jake Butt didn’t expect to be on the sidelines this soon, but he’s making the most of it.
The former Pickerington North standout tight end—who went on to earn two-time All-American honors at Michigan and play four seasons with the Denver Broncos before repeated ACL injuries ended his NFL career at just 26 years old in 2021—is now a sideline reporter for FOX Sports’ coverage of the United Football League (UFL), a spring professional football league currently in its third season. (The UFL was formed in 2024 through a merger of two preexisting spring football leagues, the XFL and USFL.)
“I think if I played 10 years, I don’t know if I’d be in media,” Butt tells 614 Magazine at Historic Crew Stadium in April ahead of a matchup between the Columbus Aviators—new to the UFL this year—and the Dallas Renegades. “My playing career ended so abruptly that I felt like I wasn’t done with football yet, but I needed to pivot.”
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The opportunity to do just that came about in 2023, when Butt was offered a position as a studio host, analyst and game-caller for the Big Ten Network, which is majority-owned by Fox Sports. His UFL responsibilities are an evolution of this initial role—and they’re also a part of the upstart league’s mandate to provide football fans with unprecedented levels of access to gameplay.
Traditional college football and NFL broadcasts typically feature three on-field interviews: pre-game, halftime and post-game. A Fox Sports UFL broadcast, meanwhile, often more than doubles this figure thanks to sideline reporters like Butt, who are tasked with interviewing coaches, key playmakers, and even officials as big moments unfold in real time. Instead of waiting out the clock in the locker room tunnel, Butt spends the entirety of the game darting between both teams’ benches, jotting down first-person color from staffers and players and deciding who he’ll feature in his next live hit, which frequently takes place from mid-field.
“I like being in the booth or the studio, but you really can’t beat [being a sideline reporter], especially for a league so focused on access like the UFL,” he explains. “It’s much closer to playing in the sense that everything happens on the fly. I can prepare all week, but I still have to react and execute in ways I never could’ve planned for.”
Still, prepare all week he does—usually with the help of his wife, a former Michigan lacrosse player, who quizzes Butt on stats, names and team standings. And though he’s a football guy through-and-through, Butt sees himself as more of a point guard in his current role. “My job is to tee these guys up to give good insight when something important or explosive happens, but I’m intentional about it,” he says. “I’m not just going to interview the scorer after every touchdown. I’m always thinking, ‘Is there a storyline? Would this add to the experience of the fan watching at home?”
The UFL also leverages other experimental presentation strategies. Mic’d up officials—who explain calls to broadcasters live on-air—are common; so too are cameras affixed to drones that fly just feet above players’ heads, providing viewers with a unique on-field perspective. The league is betting that the sense of immediacy created by these tactics will be a major draw, especially in new markets like Columbus, which, according to Butt, has “an insatiable hunger for football.”
So far, this assessment is proving mostly correct.
Coached by former Buckeye great Ted Ginn Jr., the Aviators sold 14,810 tickets to their home opener on April 3. Subsequent home games on April 17 and May 1 each brought in approximately 9,000 fans despite the team’s less-than-stellar start to the season. (The Aviators are 2-5 at the time of writing).
When asked about the Aviators’ future prospects, Butt is cautiously optimistic. “It takes time for any team to get to know each other and really gel,” he says. “But long-term, things are looking up for Columbus.”
Things are looking up for him, too.
Butt, now 30 years old, had already built a sizable social media following during his playing career thanks to a healthy mix of football content, motivational posts, and the internet’s appreciation for someone with his last name and position. (“The jokes are truly endless,” he says, himself laughing.) But since making the jump into broadcasting, he’s roughly doubled his Instagram audience—something Butt points to not as vanity, but as an integral part of staying visible in a sports media landscape where online reach increasingly matters alongside traditional television work.
“The supply of people that would love to do this job is basically infinite and there’s only so many roles. I don’t take the fact that I have this opportunity lightly,” Butt reflects just before kickoff of the Aviators-Renegades game, where his dad—who still lives in Pickerington—joins him on the sidelines.
The UFL trades heavily in second chances, both on and off the field; players arrive hoping to revive stalled careers or prove they deserved longer looks in the NFL. Butt, in his own way, is doing something similar.
The final regular two weeks of the UFL regular season commence this weekend. UFL playoffs kick off Sunday, June 7, with semifinal matchups airing nationally on ABC and FOX. The championship game follows on Saturday, June 13, at 3 p.m. ET on ABC. Games can also be streamed on most apps, including ESPN+, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV.
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