This season marks a fascinating time in NFL broadcasting, with several high-profile personalities in the final year of their current deals. One of those who has his future sorted out is Kirk Herbstreit… or maybe not.
On Tuesday, Andrew Marchand at The Athletic reported that Herbstreit was re-signing with Amazon Prime Video to continue as the lead analyst for Thursday Night Football. But there’s a catch. Amazon can move on from Herbstreit if one of its preferred targets becomes available later.
Come again?
Has there ever been a conditional deal in broadcasting or any other industry where you can be replaced if someone better becomes available? How can that even be considered a contract or agreement? And if you were approached with a similar offer in the real world, would anyone be content to sign something like that? Or would you view it as an insult and walk away to someone who truly valued you?
It was a bit of a shock when Kirk Herbstreit first signed with Amazon in 2022 to call NFL games on Thursday nights alongside Al Michaels. Before TNF, Herbstreit had never been involved in NFL broadcasting, even after starring for decades as a college football studio and game analyst at ESPN. But for the last four years, he has pulled double duty as one of sports’ busiest people. During the fall, he now calls NFL games on Thursdays, College GameDay on Saturday mornings, and ABC’s primetime college football game on Saturday nights.
But for Herbstreit’s star power and notoriety, his partnership with Al Michaels has never truly clicked at Amazon. Part of that is because Michaels is in the twilight of his career. The other part is that the two have never really developed on-air chemistry. And for as accomplished as Herbstreit is as an analyst, he’s never really captured the imagination of NFL fans or resonated the way he has on the college side. Herbstreit and Michaels have ranked 8th in the Awful Announcing NFL broadcaster rankings in each of the last two seasons.
And it seems like Amazon Prime Video is equally as ambivalent toward Kirk Herbstreit as its lead NFL analyst as fans are.
There’s no explanation for something this unprecedented. While current Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay is mentioned as Amazon’s dream target, and maybe even the preferred partner of Michaels, what are the chances of him actually moving into broadcasting next season? McVay has been talked about a lot as the NFL’s next broadcasting star, but he’s only 40 and coaching the most talented team in the league. It’s not like he’s had the lengthy career of Mike Tomlin.
But the real question for Amazon is who else is on their list of “better than Kirk Herbstreit.” Does it include another future free agent in ESPN’s Troy Aikman? Does it include Fox’s Greg Olsen? What about Travis Kelce? An unlikely lifeline for Tony Romo?
Just how extensive is that list? It can’t make Kirk Herbstreit feel great knowing that his current employer only wants him around if they have to settle.
Amazon is reportedly going to pay Herbstreit over $10 million per year if he indeed continues on Thursday Night Football. That’s not bad for anyone, no matter how far down the totem pole you might be. And with his contract also up at ESPN, it may suggest he wants to keep covering college football there, and that whether his NFL career continues isn’t paramount. While Herbstreit has mentioned giving up GameDay in the past, he’s now pledged his future to working alongside Pat McAfee. Thursday games let him keep covering the college game on the weekends; another NFL gig wouldn’t.
Perhaps that’s why he’s content with this peculiar “contract.” Not many of us have a second job worth millions of dollars that we can fall back on easily if something doesn’t work out. But the way this news broke is also a bit of a tick against his NFL broadcasting legacy. This development does Kirk Herbstreit no favors now that it’s in the public record.
ESPN did not re-sign Joe Buck solely on the condition that Mike Tirico doesn’t become available. They actually made a commitment. This is far from a ringing endorsement from his current employer that Herbstreit is viewed as a top NFL analyst. Amazon is telling Herbie they see him as more Joe Flacco than Joe Burrow.
So if this is the case, why bother making this arrangement in the first place? There are so many questions moving forward if Herbstreit does indeed remain with Amazon. A multi-year contract would be a head-scratcher because if Amazon’s preferred analysts don’t become available next year like McVay or Kelce, they might be available for the 2028 season. For that matter, we still don’t know what Al Michaels is thinking about retirement, or whether Amazon would prefer to wait until they know his status for next season.
Even though it seems awkward from the outside, perhaps everyone involved has made peace with it and wants to get ahead of whatever comes next. Plenty of former stars have embraced backup quarterback roles across the NFL in recent years. We’ve just never seen one in broadcasting until now.