sport news Derek Jeter's new deal with Fox Sports 'was given green light by his frenemy ... trends now
Derek Jeter's new deal to work as an on-air analyst for Fox Sports required approval from his long-time frenemy, Alex Rodriguez, according to a report by the New York Post's Andrew Marchand.
Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks ran the idea by Rodriguez, who has worked with the network since 2017 and is known to have a complicated relationship with his former Yankees teammate, to say the least.
'Why wouldn't we reach out?' Fox Sports spokesman Andrew Fegyveresi asked the Post, without specifically confirming the report.
Fox Sports spokespeople have not responded to DailyMail.com's request for confirmation.
A-Rod did give his approval, and will now appear with Jeter on Fox Sports pregame shows this season, alongside former rival David Ortiz and host Kevin Burkhardt. Details of Jeter's contract have not been reported publicly, although his friend Tom Brady has a 10-year, $375 million contract to begin calling NFL games for the network starting in 2024.
Alex Rodriguez (right) reportedly gave his approval to hire Derek Jeter (left) to CEO Eric Shanks
Rodriguez (left in 2013) is known to have a complicated relationship with Jeter (right)
Beginning in 2017, Jeter became the lead executive of the Miami Marlins and purchased a 4 percent stake. He has since stepped down while selling his shares of the club.
Despite some recent on-air hugs when Jeter's deal was announced by Fox in February, he and Rodriguez have become admittedly estranged since the latter diminished the former's accomplishments in a 2001 interview. They would become teammates in New York three years later, ultimately winning a World Series together with the Yankees in 2009.
After years of refraining from commenting on the subject, Jeter finally came clean about the end of his relationship with Rodriguez in the summer of 2022.
Speaking to ESPN as part of a seven-part docs-series on his life titled 'The Captain,' the 48-year-old Jeter pointed to a decades-old Esquire profile of Rodriguez, who had just departed the Seattle Mariners at the time to sign a record-breaking $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers.
Until that point, the two shortstops were often compared to each other, having debuted in consecutive seasons in the mid-1990s to immediate acclaim. Instead of a rivalry, the two All-Stars quickly became friends, socializing together and occasionally crashing at each other's apartments.
That all changed when Rodriguez was asked about Jeter by Esquire in 2001, by which point the former had already won four World Series titles to the latter's zero.
'Jeter's been blessed with great talent around him,' Rodriguez said, crediting the Yankees' power hitters for the team's success.
'So he's never had to lead. He doesn't have to, he can just go and play and have fun, and hit second. I
