While Ponder (who’s married to NFL quarterback Christian Ponder) is described as a “strong candidate,” nothing has been finalized, sources said. If Ponder does land the lead chair on “Sunday NFL Countdown,” she won’t take over Berman’s other duties such as hosting Day One of NFL Draft coverage, according to sources.

Ponder serves as a contributor to ESPN’s Emmy-winning “College Gameday” and as a sideline reporter for college football/basketball coverage. She also works with Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler for ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” coverage. The Phoenix native previously served as a host/reporter for Fox Sports. More

Go ahead and call me a sexist, but I’m not watching a fucking NFL pregame show hosted by a chick. Give me former NFL players, and fat guys who got cut from the JV team back in 86 and have spent the past few decades burying the disappointed look on their father’s faces with beer, wings, and a passion for breaking down the intricacies of the Cover 2, or just give me Jon Gruden talking to a chalkboard by himself for a couple hours, but DO NOT under any circumstances give me a chick getting production notes fed into her headset for three hours on Sunday mornings.

It’s bad enough that I had to sit through 9 innings of Jessica Mendoza every time the Mets played on Sunday nights last year, but this is a step too far.

There are certain things that should never happen; a Jew becoming Pope, a snowstorm in Saudi Arabia, and a chick being shoe-horned into a host spot on an NFL pregame show, all fall into that category.

Mark my words, if this happens it will be one of the final straws to break the camel’s back over at ESPN — every fan with a pair of testes will be tuning in to NFL Network, CBS, and FOX from August through February.

I know it might sound weird that I think it would be a terrible idea to replace a fat man with a hot blonde. Weird indeed, but context matters — there is as they say ‘a time and a place for everything’ and if I see an attractive blonde woman surrounded by a group of athletic gentlemen of color it better be over on dogfart.com not live on ESPN.

I’m not saying they need to get back in the kitchen, but chicks sure as hell don’t belong on the pregame show every Sunday.