Report: Amazon, Kirk Herbstreit make decision on Thursday Night Football role

Reports emerged over previous weeks that Amazon had its eyes set on some big names to fill out its coverage team for Thursday Night Football broadcasts. One of the names Amazon was eyeing was Kirk Herbstreit, who currently is the face of ESPN’s college football coverage on College GameDay.

Now, it appears that Amazon has settled on Herbstreit, and that the deal will allow him to continue in his current duties with ESPN, according to Pro Football Talk’s Peter King.

“I heard last night that Amazon—spurned by Troy Aikman, Sean McVay and John Lynch—has settled on ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit to be the analyst on its Thursday night package of NFL games starting this fall,” King said. “(He’s likely to continue his current ESPN/ABC duties as well).”

Andrew Marchand of the New York post originally reported Amazon’s interest in Herbstreit. Herbstreit is under contract for nearly $6 million per year with ESPN, per Marchand.

Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, has been working with ESPN since 1996. He also works with ABC with NFL Draft coverage.

While Amazon might have struck out on Troy Aikman, Sean McVay, and other big names, the company is undoubtedly making a splash by making Herbstreit the face of its NFL football coverage.

Herbstreit is expanding from college football, adding NFL to his repertoire with Amazon

It will certainly be interesting to see Herbstreit in the booth for NFL games on a frequent basis. Amazon is still finalizing the rest of its broadcast team, but right now, Herbstreit is a pretty splashy start.

Prior to the Amazon news, Herbstreit opened up about his thoughts on College GameDay at ESPN moving forward. He is excited to continue moving forward with fans back in attendance, and now, Herbstreit will be getting even more involved in football.

“Honestly, we’re excited for this season,” Herbstreit said. “College football – as much chaos as there is off the field, I don’t know if the game itself or the brand itself has ever been better. Think about last season. We finally had fans back after missing them in ’20. The excitement, the energy and the passion is there every single week. Like, from Week 1 you’re thinking, ‘Man, that was great.’ Then, the next week it’s even better.

“So, we were lucky as a sport that we had so much juice every single week and GameDay is right in the middle of it, obviously, every week. We hope to continue to do that, man.”