In March, the New England Patriots and their former starting offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer parted ways. Subsequently, the 2009 second round draft pick, who won two Super Bowls with the Patriots, announced his retirement while already having set his eyes on his next career: broadcasting. Vollmer will be able to show off his talents later today when New England hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars for the two teams' preseason opener.
As the Patriots announced earlier this week, Vollmer will call all four of the team's 2017 preseason contests - and he will not be alone. His former teammate Markus Kuhn, who spent his 2016 offseason in Foxboro, will join him in the booth. Together, the duo will do play-by-play and color commentary of the following games exclusively on patriots.com:
Patriots vs. Jaguars: August 10, 7:30 p.m. ET
Patriots at Texans: August 19, 8:00 p.m. ET
Patriots at Lions: August 25, 7:00 a.m. ET
Patriots vs. Giants: August 32, 7:30 a.m. ET
Vollmer and Kuhn will therefore get plenty of experience this preseason. Unfortunately, however, fans in the United States will not be able to witness them call the four games. Besides the fact that the two Germans will call the games in their native language, the streams will only be available in Germany.
The team has set up similar streams for viewers in the United Kingdom and Mexico. WBZ-TV's Dan Roche and two former Patriots, Christian Fauria and Matt Chatham, will do the English broadcast while Omar Cabrera and Martin Morales will do the same in Spanish. This is a nice service offered by the team considering how popular the defending world champions are abroad and how big their international following is.