'Thursday Night Football': Why There's No Game Scheduled for Week 17
Thursday Night Football has been a staple for the NFL this season. And despite there being two weeks remaining in the regular season, there will not be a game played tonight. The reason for no Thursday Night Football this week is the league only scheduled Thursday games through Week 16. The Thursday Night Football finale was last week when the Tennessee Titans took on the San Francisco 49ers.
And for those who are wondering if the NFL is returning to action on Saturday, the answer is no. Unlike the last two weeks, the NFL will not have any games played this Saturday due to it being New Year's Day, which normally belongs to college football. There will be a full slate of games on Sunday as well as a Monday night game, between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. The game on Monday will be the regular-season finale of Monday Night Football.
Things will look a little different for Thursday Night Football next year. Amazon Prime will be the NFL's exclusive home for Thursday Night Football after airing on Fox, NBC and CBS over the years. The streaming service is paying $1 billion per season for the exclusive rights. Amazon will broadcast 15 Thursday night games and one pre-season game each year, according to CNBC.
"We look forward to bringing Thursday Night Football exclusively to Prime members in 2022, a year earlier than previously announced," said Marie Donoghue, vice president of global sports video at Amazon, in a statement. "This expedited deal is an immediate differentiator for us as a service, as it gives Prime members exclusive access to the most popular sport in the United States."
According to Front Office Sports, Amazon Prime is looking to bring in Troy Aikman to call the games along with Al Michaels to form a "TNF dream team." Aikman has called Thursday night games and Sunday afternoon games for Fox with Joe Buck. Michaels currently calls games with Cris Collinsworth for Sunday Night Football on NBC. But the question will Fox let Aikman walk away for Amazon? "Even if he's exclusive to Fox, [CEO Eric] Shanks could agree to let him do it," one producer told Front Office Sports.