Age is just a number, and James Brown is clearly proving it. At 75, the longtime host of CBS’s The NFL Today has no sign of backing down from his job. Brown knows that nobody can work forever, and you have to retire at some point, but he also made it clear that he is not ready to spend his days relaxing by the pool. He wants to work as much as he can, and he isn’t setting any timeline for it.

“I’m not being dismissive of that which I’m doing, because I love what I’m doing,” Brown said during a conversation with Sports Business Journal. “But Marilyn Hickey, before she passed away, people were asking her why she didn’t retire. She said: Retirement is not in the Bible. Whatever gifts and talents I’ve been given, I want to use them to the fullest. When it’s my time to go, I don’t want people looking over, as the proverbial story is, to see all that talent that was unused in the grave. I want to give it all. Whatever that may be.”

Brown said he is still inspired by a conversation he once had with the late televangelist Marilyn Hickey. He remembered traveling to Pakistan with her for a CBS News assignment when she was 86 years old and still active. That is Browns inspiration. Also, after years of working, leaving everything all of a sudden is not easy for everyone.

James Brown started working in sports broadcasting in 1984. He first called Washington Bullets (now Wizards) basketball games on TV, worked as a sports news anchor in Washington, D.C., hosted radio shows, and announced Black college basketball games on BET before becoming a national TV broadcaster.

After joining CBS Sports in 1984, Brown covered many different sports and events, including NFL football, college basketball, the NBA Finals, the NBA All-Star Game, Major League Baseball’s 1990 National League Championship Series, and the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics.

James Brown has hosted CBS’s The NFL Today since 2006, and the network is not in a hurry to replace him. Last year, reports said CBS was working on a new contract for him. Front Office Sports also reported that Nate Burleson is expected to become the show’s host in the future, but CBS has not made that change yet.

Over the years, Brown has earned many recognitions. He has won five Emmy Awards, entered the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2020, hosted a record 11 Super Bowl pregame shows, and was named Sports Illustrated’s “Best Studio Host of the Decade” in 2010. Interestingly, though, there’s one new face who will be joining the CBS roster in the upcoming 2026 NFL season.

CBS Sports added Russell Wilson to The NFL Today in June 2026 as a new studio analyst. He replaced Matt Ryan, who left the network to become the Atlanta Falcons’ president of football operations. He now joins Brown, Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher, and retired NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson on The NFL Today desk.

But despite another big NFL name joining the show, Brown has made it clear that he still enjoys his work, and he has only one plan with his work for now:

“I want to give it all. Whatever that may be.”