Kirk Herbstreit has a new NFL job. According to Peter King of NBC Sports, the ESPN college football analyst will be an analyst for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video for the 2022 season. King said Amazon “settled for” Herbstreit after the likes of Sean McVay, John Lynch and Troy Aikman passed on the job.
Who will join Herbstreit in the booth? According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, talks between Amazon and Al Michaels have stalled. Marchand also stated that Herbstreit and Michaels have no relationship but there’s no reason to think they won’t get along. Another thing is ESPN allowing Herbstreit to do both college and NFL. If that’s the case, Amazon could see if Herbstreit’s ESPN partner Chirs Fowler would call games.
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Herbstreit, 52, has been with ESPN since 1996 when he joined Flower and Lee Corso for the flagship pre-game show College GameDay. His work on the show led to him earning seven Sports Emmy Award nominations and three wins in his career. He’s also a game analyst for ABC Saturday Night Football, the College Football Playoff Semifinal game National Championship game.
In October, PopCulture.com exclusively spoke to Herbstreit about various topics, including underrated college football atmospheres. “Iowa City where Kinnick Stadium is, I think anybody who’s ever been there for big game would walk away from that stadium like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Herbstreit told PopCulture. “In the Big Ten they think of Ohio Stadium, they think of The Big House, they think of Wisconsin, they think of Penn State, but not everyone always thinks about Kinnick Stadium. And if you ask any Big Ten people they would tell you pretty quickly, if they’ve been there, “Wow, you go to Kinnick Stadium, that’s one of the louder stadiums in the country.”
The 2022 NFL season will be different in terms of broadcasting games. Along with Amazon being the exclusive home to Thursday Night Football, Aikman will reportedly leave Fox to join ESPN Monday Night Football. This means that Joe Buck will need a new partner on Fox, or he could join Aikman at ESPN, which could leave a big hole on Fox. Also, if Michaels leaves Sunday Night Football for NBC, Mike Tirico will likely take over.
