Kirk Herbstreit, Amazon reach decision on Thursday Night Football, per report

Kirk Herbstreit is set to add another assignment to his weekly duties, and this one will be outside of ESPN.

The popular college football analyst at ESPN will call NFL games on Thursdays for Amazon, according to a report from Peter King of NBC Sports. Here’s King’s report:

I heard last night that Amazon—spurned by Troy Aikman, Sean McVay and John Lynch—has settled on ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit to be the analyst on its Thursday night package of NFL games starting this fall. (He’s likely to continue his current ESPN/ABC duties as well.) Andrew Marchand of the New York Post was first to connect the Amazon-Herbstreit dots on Feb. 27.

My first reaction: It seems weird. Amazon would rather have a very good college football analyst who’s never had a regular NFL job do the games than, say, Drew Brees or Sean Payton or Kurt Warner? My second reaction: Herbstreit’s a pro, he’s a big name to legions of college football fans, he must really want to break the college-to-NFL glass ceiling, Amazon surely wanted to make a splash with this hire, and Herbstreit’s a non-status-quo guy. He’s different. It’s a little edgy, a little risky. All that, just my educated guess.

We’re still awaiting decision from two of the great play-by-play people of our lives, Al Michaels and Joe Buck, on their 2022 homes. But when you stream Amazon this fall to watch the Thursday night package, you’ll be hearing a new NFL voice, Kirk Herbstreit, interpret the games.

Andrew Marchand of the New York Post previously reported that “While Herbstreit is under contract with ESPN for around $6-plus million per year, sources have told The Post that the way his deal is written he would be allowed to do the NFL with another entity, while continuing on college for ESPN.”

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.