1. It appears that the NFL broadcasting shuffle is just about over. Where do we stand? What have we learned? Here are some thoughts and answers to questions you may have about all the moving around that’s happened over the past few weeks.
- Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will call Thursday Night Football for Amazon beginning this season. The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported Monday that after Joe Buck left Fox for ESPN, Michaels’s representative’s reached out to Fox to see whether there was interest. There was not. Sources told me the same thing, which might be a little surprising given that Fox has two of the next three Super Bowls, but the network is clearly ready to elevate the excellent Kevin Burkhardt into its No. 1 slot.
This would confirm what Troy Aikman told me on this week’s SI Media Podcast—that Fox didn’t re-sign him because it wanted “an opportunity to hit the reset button on the economics of the No. 1 booth.”
- Even though Herbstreit is adding the NFL to his plate Thursday nights, college football fans don’t have to worry about seeing less of him on air. He’ll still appear on College GameDay each Saturday and will still call ESPN/ABC’s top college football game each Saturday.
- I predict that Michaels and Herbstreit will become a very popular booth with NFL fans.
- This was a nice way for Cris Collinsworth to say goodbye to Al Michaels.
- With Burkhardt and analyst Greg Olsen expected to become Fox’s No. 1 team, that means the network needs a No. 2 team. That is important because that team will call a playoff game in some years. In-house options for play-by-play include Kenny Albert, Adam Amin and Kevin Kugler. That would actually be a perfect role for Gus Johnson, but, unfortunately, he’s tied up with college football for Fox. The depth for Fox when it comes to analysts isn’t nearly as strong, with Daryl Johnston, Mark Schlereth and Mark Sanchez as current options. Fox didn’t want to make a big splash with its No. 1 team. It will be very interesting to see what it does with its No. 2 team.
And in a Q&A last week, Buck told me, “I think at this point, I wanted a known quantity next to me. I think this business is more intense. As I’m coming up on 30 years in it, it’s more intense now than it’s ever been. With the amount of scrutiny that’s out there, I felt like we have a good thing. I know where he’s going. He knows where I’m going. If it was at all possible, I wanted to try to continue that. I don’t care about—we’re one year shy of tying [John] Madden and [Pat] Summerall—and all that. It’s just about two guys who enjoy working with each other and feel comfortable. That’s this business.”
2. As I mentioned, this week's guest on the SI Media Podcast is Troy Aikman. He shared all the behind-the-scenes details of his move from Fox to ESPN, explained what disappointed him about what took place and talked about his excitement in joining Monday Night Football.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
3. I cover this stuff for a living and still totally forgot that Major League Baseball will air on TBS every Tuesday night this season. This used to be the old Sunday afternoon package that TBS had that barely anybody watched. So if you're a baseball fan, here's where you can watch national games this season:
- Sunday mornings on Peacock
- Sunday nights on ESPN
- Tuesday nights on TBS
- Friday nights on Apple TV
- Saturday afternoon on Fox
4. The end (hopefully) of the pandemic, the rise in legalized sports gambling and Mike Krzyzewski’s swan song are helping the NCAA tournament enjoy a nice ratings increase.
5. This is an excellent read about how former Reds and Fox Sports play-by-play man Thom Brennaman has tried to educate himself after getting fired for saying an anti-LGBTQ slur into a hot mic during a game in 2020.
6. The Lakers stink, but there are still few things in sports as enjoyable as watching LeBron do his thing.
