Shutterstock
According to New York Post’s Andrew Marchand suggest, Amazon Prime is “eyeing” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit for the broadcast booth of Thursday Night Football.
While Kirk Herbstreit is currently contracted to ESPN for a reported $6-plus million per year deal, sources claim the way his deal is written he would be permitted to do the NFL with another organization while continuing on college for American Sports broadcasters ESPN. … If himself and Amazon were to seal a deal, ESPN, as per sources, would want the option to still use him on some NFL matches. While still on “Monday Night Football,” it will extend to 25 matches a season in the next two years.
Herbstreit, believed to be the best college football analyst on American television, has past NFL experience, picking up matches for ESPN the last few years when the network had Monday Night Football doubleheader matches.
American tabloids are claiming Amazon remains keen on bringing in Al Michaels as the play-by-play announcer for its coverage of Thursday Night Football starting next season. However “Michaels has not penned a deal, wanting to know who his analyst would be on the show. Michaels has been openly opposed to an inexperienced partner on the show. Herbstreit, in a lot of ways, would come a perfect fit for Michaels.”
NBC Sports’ Peter King suggests Michaels “wanted (Troy) Aikman. He would have been glad for Sean McVay. But when McVay said last Friday he was remaining in football, his first two options were already gone. … Amazon Prime might make a run at Drew Brees for the role of a game analyst.”
As it’s the usual case, this offseason will feature unprecedented movement among the top broadcasters of the NFL.
Aside from Michaels joining Amazon Prime, former quarterback of Dallas Cowboys, Troy Aikman is set to dump FOX Sports for ESPN. Joe Buck could do likewise, but if he eventually remain, he will be analysing with NCAAF picks for the week, which is what fans love.
However, King suggests that “if Buck remains at FOX, it’s logical that Michaels negotiates with ESPN. If Buck moves to ESPN, Michaels may still take the role at Amazon, whoever the show analyst is.
According to King, “I think he’ll meet with FOX, hear out his bosses, and decide if he’d be happy staying there with a new football analyst on a long-term deal. I don’t know how Buck’s love of baseball factors into this. My guess is if it’s gone this far, he may want to leave, and I doubt FOX would want an admitted lame duck in such a high-profile gig. If so, we’ll see if FOX lets him out to join Aikman at ESPN. But Buck is the next domino to fall.”
If Buck dumps FOX, King says the Television network could talk to Kevin Burkhardt to be the network’s top play-by-play announcer.
Former head coach of New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton is set to replace Aikman at FOX Network. If Payton doesn’t get a contract sealed with FOX, it’s possible New Jersey native Greg Olsen, the network’s No. 2 analyst this term, could get bumped up to the top side.
And then the biggest wild card of them all: Tom Brady, who announced his retirement from the game earlier in the month. The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand claims Brady “will receive calls from Fox and Amazon.”
Herbstreit’s bio looks quite impressive: He is widely recognized as one of the best college football analysts of his generation, Kirk has worked for ESPN’s Sports Emmy Award-winning College GameDay Built by The Home Depot remote college football studio show since August 1996 as an analyst, when he joined then-host Chris Fowler and Lee Corso. For his good job there, he has earned several nominations and three Sports Emmy Awards for Best Studio Analyst (2010, 2011, 2019).
