Jonathan William Coachman (born August 12, 1973), also known as "The Coach", is an American sports analyst and former professional wrestling personality.
Contents
Early life
Before embarking on an announcing career in professional wrestling, Coachman was a high school basketball player. After two state basketball championships at McPherson High School in McPherson, Kansas, Coachman moved across town to continue playing for McPherson College. While at McPherson, Coachman's interests included participating in theatre, serving as the sports editor for the school newspaper, and doing play-by-play and color commentary for the local football and basketball radio broadcasts. Coachman was also a sports reporter/anchor at KAKE in Wichita, Kansas, and also lived for a time in Newton Falls, Ohio, frequently attending Youngstown State Penguins basketball games.
Coachman also starred in many instructional videos used for technical education classrooms of middle schools and high schools. One set of videos featured "Coach" instructing people on flight navigation and the basics of airplanes. He also had a "boyfriend-in-a-box" modeled after him during college. Coachman also worked for local Kansas City news station KMBC-TV, where he was a correspondent for Larry King Live's coverage of Owen Hart's death in May 1999.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Coachman began his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) career as an interviewer, commentator, and presenter on SmackDown! on January 13, 2000. Coachman was also involved in occasional segments with The Rock, in which The Rock attempted to humiliate Coachman in any form possible, whether it was forcing him to sing, dance, or smile for the camera. The Rock also accused Coachman of performing rather lewd activities with farm animals.
During winter of 2001, Coachman was pressed into service as a sideline reporter for regional telecasts of the WWF-owned XFL, initially serving on the same broadcast team as WWF commentators Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.
The Coach made a heel turn against Shane McMahon on August 24, 2003, at SummerSlam. After this he would have an on-screen role as the "lackey" to then General Manager of Raw, Eric Bischoff. The Coach continued to work as a heel and later teamed up with his fellow WWE Heat announcer Al Snow in a storyline feud against the Raw announce team, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross. This feud would even see the pair win the right to announce the main show from Ross and Lawler at one point, as The Coach and Snow defeated Ross and Lawler at Unforgiven. Later, The Coach achieved a singles victory on pay-per-view at Backlash, in 2004 by defeating Tajiri (albeit with the assistance of Garrison Cade). The Coach would go on to host the 2004 and 2005 Raw Diva Searches. Later, The Coach would gain his own column in the now defunct Raw Magazine ("Coach's Corner") and his own webcast on WWE.com ("CoachCast"). Coachman was officially added as the third member to the Raw broadcast team and signed a multi-year contract with WWE in 2005.
During October 2005, The Coach was involved in an angle involving the McMahon Family publicly firing Jim Ross due to the actions of Ross's friend, Steve Austin. The firing of Ross gave The Coach the position of lead announcer on Raw. The storyline would culminate in a match at Taboo Tuesday where Austin was scheduled to face The Coach in a match with both Austin's and Ross's jobs on the line. Though the match was originally scheduled to be Austin versus The Coach, Austin refused to participate because of issues he had with the storyline (the original story was said to have called for Austin to lose following a run-in by the returning Mark Henry). World Heavyweight Champion Batista was renamed the opponent to play up the SmackDown! vs. Raw storylines. On the October 31, 2005 edition of Raw, Batista came out and accepted the match only to be attacked by The Coach's backup, the returning Goldust and Vader. At Taboo Tuesday, Batista faced off against The Coach in a fan-voted Street Fight. Vader and Goldust tried to interfere in the match, but Batista won. However, no mention of the Jim Ross stipulation was ever mentioned after the match.
Return to WWE
On March 25, 2016, Coachman made a special appearance during WWE's live event held at Madison Square Garden. On the March 28 episode of Raw, Coachman returned to WWE television for the first time in almost 8 years, cutting a promo with The New Day. Coachman would also announce that SportsCenter would be live leading up to WrestleMania 32 on April 3. On the January 22, 2018, episode of Raw 25 Years, Coachman would appear in a backstage segment with Raw general manager Kurt Angle and other past WWE talent, Harvey Wippleman, The Brooklyn Brawler, Theodore Long, Brother Love and The Boogeyman.
On January 29, 2018, Coachman re-signed with WWE, joining the Raw commentary team alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves, replacing Booker T as color commentator. On September 10, Coachman would leave the Raw commentary team, being replaced by Renee Young, with Coachman becoming the new pre-show panel host for pay-per-views.
Coachman also served as pregame host for the 2020 incarnation of the XFL. Coachman left WWE and the XFL in 2021, stating that he had expected to be reimbursed for his travel expenses but never was due to the XFL's bankruptcy.
Sports broadcasting career
ESPN (2008–2017)
In 2008, Coachman left WWE to begin a career with ESPN. Starting in mid-2015, Coachman began presenting highlights of WWE's best moments of the week on ESPN and having weekly sitdown interviews with WWE wrestlers on SportsCenter. In October 2017, Coachman announced via his Periscope that his contract at ESPN had expired, thus confirming his departure from the network.
NBC Sports Group (2018–2021)
As WWE has a television deal with NBCUniversal, in 2018, he was named play-by-play announcer for the NBC-owned World Long Drive Championship. Coachman is also a commentator for PGA Tour Live, which is an NBC Sports Gold subscription service providing additional coverage of golf tournaments.
CBS Sports
As of 2021, Coachman was employed by CBS Sports.
PFL
Coachman is also an analyst for Mixed Martial Arts promotion Professional Fighters League.
Personal life
Coachman and his ex-wife Amy have two children. Amy is a former college athlete, and a personal trainer.
Other media
In addition to his WWE assignments, Coachman called various sports events on College Sports Television, a cable and satellite network owned by CBS, including football, basketball, baseball and softball. He also called college basketball for CN8. In addition, Coachman served as the part-time play-by-play announcer for the WNBA's New York Liberty on the MSG Network, as well as the studio host for New York Knicks games. He also hosted the weekly MSG program MSG, NY.
In 2009, Coachman signed with ESPN as anchor of SportsCenter. In 2012, he became the host of Coach & Company, a nationally syndicated radio program that airs on ESPN Radio.
Coachman also lends his voice talents to the video games Black College Football Xperience: The Doug Williams Edition, Madden NFL 19, Madden NFL 20, Madden NFL 21, Madden 24, and Madden 25 (2024).
In July 2025, Coachman began hosting Off the Ropes on the Pro Wrestling Nation 24/7 channel on SiriusXM.
Awards and accomplishments
Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
Worst Television Announcer (2003, 2005, 2018)