Peyton Manning Eyed by Amazon for NFL’s Thursday Night Football

Peyton Manning is being pursued by a TV network again. A top TV executive recently spoke to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and said, “The NFL’s white whale is out there for Amazon,” with the “white whale” being Manning. Amazon will get exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football starting in 2022 and could make a run at him very soon.

TV networks have pursued Manning since he retired from the NFL in 2016. Amazon is looking at Manning to be the lead analyst with Al Michaels being the lead play-by-play announcer. It’s possible Amazon could offer Manning a 10-year, $180 million contract, which is similar to what Tony Romo was offered from CBS.

Marchand mentioned that Amazon has not gone after Manning yet and may never make the move. And with Michaels being the play-by-play announcer, that is not a done deal despite Amazon partnering with NBC and Sunday Night Football. Amazon reportedly also had talks with Fox, which could mean Joe Buck and Troy Aikman could call the games on Thursday like they have the past few years.

Last year, Manning hinted at broadcasting NFL games in the future. I’ve said ‘no’ to this year,” Manning said to Rich Eisen. “It just doesn’t feel like the right time. And I hate sort of kind of having this sort of ‘check with me next year’ type deal, but that’s really how I approach this chapter. I just believe in taking it a year at a time. That’s kind of what [recently retired former New York Giants quarterback and younger brother] Eli [Manning] is doing. He’s taking this year off. … So that’s what I’ve tried to do and I don’t really have a five-year plan or 10-year plan.” Manning went on to talk about how he loves the game of football and right now he’s just enjoying the retired life.

“I loved playing football, I loved everything about it and I’ve just tried to ease into this second chapter by keeping myself busy, keeping myself stimulated, creating a lot of time for family and to do some things that I haven’t had the chance to do,” Manning stated

In the meantime, Manning is getting ready to host a new game show on NBC. The show is called College Bowl and Manning will host the show with his brother Cooper. College Bowl originally ran on CBS and NBC from 1959 to 1970 and students from 12 schools compete in a head-to-head tournament. Peyton, Cooper and younger brother Eli are executive producers on the show.