Andrew Novak has carved out a niche on the PGA Tour that no other player can match. The 30-year-old American — already a winner on the circuit and the defending Zurich Classic champion alongside Ben Griffin — moonlights as one of professional golf's most committed NFL obsessives, co-hosting a weekly football podcast in season and shaping his off-course life around the gridiron calendar.
In a feature published by ESPN this week, Novak opened up on a fandom that runs from his Mount Pleasant, South Carolina childhood — when he attended his first Carolina Panthers game aged four or five — to a current schedule that has him recording every Tuesday during the season. "I always kind of thought it was something that would be fun to do, just talk some football," Novak said of launching his "ScreenPlay Podcast" in the autumn of 2023.
Eighty-three episodes deep, including a recently completed NFL Draft preview series, Novak's setup is now serious enough that PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp — formerly a senior NFL executive — sat for early interviews. The cross-pollination between the two sports may prove no accident. Rolapp has already been credited inside the Tour for lifting RBC Heritage television figures earlier this month, and Novak's podcast feed sits as a curious crossover document of his old industry and his new one.
Novak's encyclopaedic football knowledge surprises even those closest to him in the locker room. "Whether it's Miami, Florida or Florida State, he has a wealth of knowledge," Harris English told ESPN, before adding the kicker: "he shouldn't remember any of it because he was too young to be watching."
The Panthers, who drafted Bryce Young first overall in 2023 and reached the postseason last year, remain his primary allegiance. "We snuck into the playoffs last year, which was pretty cool," Novak said of the franchise's first taste of January football in years. He developed a secondary college tie to the Miami Hurricanes after the program's 2001 BCS championship run pulled him in.
Novak is also unafraid to read the league. On the New York Jets' quarterback dilemma during the recent draft cycle, he pushed back on the conventional wisdom: "The Jets needed a quarterback. I still don't think that that necessarily means they won't draft one." On the Atlanta Falcons' decision-making, he was blunter: "Typical Falcons. That's a little weird to me."
He is a player obsessive too. Novak recalled dissecting one game tape so closely that one defender's footprint became unforgettable. "Every single play, it was like, 'Oh my god, that guy's there again.'"
Inside the ropes, Novak's playing partner Ben Griffin is happy to keep things light. "We'll talk football," Griffin told ESPN, "even though I don't follow it as well as you. I don't podcast." The pair won at TPC Louisiana in 2025 and remain in the field this week defending the title, with Novak's NFL hat firmly off until November.
For all the chatter about football, Novak's golf form has not slipped. He produced a tied-16th finish at the recent RBC Heritage and has finished inside the top 20 in two of his last three starts, building a steady season after his breakthrough victory in New Orleans last spring. The Zurich title defence is live again this week alongside Griffin, and a return to top-tier form would only widen the platform from which he can keep talking gridiron.
What separates Novak from any number of celebrity-fan golfers is that he has built an actual product. "In golf, you really don't get to do it much," he said of the chance to commentate. The podcast is his answer to that — and a small piece of football has now carved itself a permanent space in the PGA Tour locker room.
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*Originally published on [Golf News Global](https://golfnews.global/article/andrew-novak-pga-tour-nfl-fan-screenplay-podcast-panthers-falcons-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
