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Kirk Herbstreit Reportedly On Amazon’s Radar For ‘Thursday Night Football’

Herbstreit’s current contract may allow him to broadcast NFL games with another outlet while continuing to call college football with ESPN.

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Days after ESPN hired Troy Aikman before Amazon could finalize a deal with the analyst, Amazon may try to poach one of ESPN’s top football voices.

The New York Post‘s Andrew Marchand reports that Amazon is targeting Kirk Herbstreit for its NFL Thursday Night Football analyst position. Of course, Herbstreit is ESPN/ABC’s No. 1 college football game analyst and a key part of ESPN’s College GameDay Saturday pregame show. He’s arguably the network’s top voice on the sport across its programming.

But according to Marchand, his current contract may allow him to broadcast NFL games with another outlet while continuing to call college football with ESPN. As could be expected, however, lawyers would likely have something to say about that, possibly interpreting that contract in different ways. Disney’s lawyers might say his ESPN contract wouldn’t allow him to work for Amazon.

Additionally, ESPN would still be interested in Herbstreit calling NFL games for the network even if he took the TNF Amazon job. With its new rights deal, ESPN (with ABC and ESPN+) will have up to 25 games per season, including 23 regular-season games, Divisional Round playoff games in addition to Wild Card playoffs, and Super Bowls in the 2026 and 2030 seasons. The network will need more than the regular Monday Night Football crew to call those broadcasts.

Marchand’s report clarifies that serious talks between Amazon and Herbstreit haven’t begun. Yet that’s expected to change soon.

Obviously, calling Thursday Night Football, then doing College GameDay on Saturday, followed by a college football broadcast for ESPN or ABC would be a considerable workload. But Herbstreit has expressed interest in broadcasting both college football and NFL games in the past.

Herbstreit has dabbled in NFL broadcasting during the past few years. He was part of NFL Draft coverage for ESPN in 2018 and last year for ABC. In 2020, he called the first game of ESPN’s Monday Night Football doubleheader with regular play-by-play partner Chris Fowler. Last season, the two returned to call the first game of ESPN/ABC’s NFL Week 18 Saturday doubleheader.

Speaking of Fowler, Marchand mentions that ESPN is considering Fowler as the play-by-play partner for Aikman on Monday Night Football, along with Joe Buck, Al Michaels, and Ian Eagle. Could both Herbstreit and Fowler call NFL games — and for different entities — then reunite each Saturday for their usual college football showcase?

Just about anything seems possible — though improbable — in this frenzied NFL broadcasting carousel.

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College Football Playoff ‘Not Averse’ to Streaming Exclusives in Next TV Deal

“I wouldn’t expect us to stream all of them, but right now nothing’s off the table.”

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Football innovation on the field tends to trickle up. What works at lower levels eventually finds its way into the NFL. When it comes to the business side of the game though, things usually go the other way. That could play out in the next television contract for the College Football Playoff.

The consensus is that conferences want multiple television partners involved with the postseason tournament. CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock says he has already received multiple proposals.

Taking a page from the NFL, who announced earlier this year that one of its 2024 playoff games will be exclusive to Peacock, Hancock says that the CFP is open to putting some games behind a paywall on a streaming service.

“Streaming adds another element,” he told ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “We are not averse to streaming some of the games. I wouldn’t expect us to stream all of them, but right now nothing’s off the table.”

Right now, stakeholders have pressed pause on finding a new TV deal. With one of the five power conferences being down to just two teams, the belief is that everyone would be in a better position by waiting to see what becomes of the Pac-12.

Hancock says there is already plenty of interest though. He told Dinich “that five television sent executives to make presentations”. Others have expressed interest, but are yet to make a formal proposal.

This is the final season of the College Football Playoff’s original four-team format. Beginning next season, the field expands to twelve teams. The current TV deal, which makes the CFP an ESPN exclusive, expires after the 2025 season.

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Ryan Leaf: ESPN Could Have Celebrated 2 Teams in Adversity But ‘Chose to Make it a Joke’

“They chose to make it a joke because Washington State and Oregon State unfortunately don’t have a conference.”

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Ryan Leaf
Courtesy: Houston Chronicle

A joke about last week’s Pac-12 matchup between Oregon State and Washington State on ESPN’s College GameDay didn’t sit well with former Cougars quarterback Ryan Leaf.

In the final moments of Saturday’s show live from Notre Dame, the desk was making picks for that day’s games when the Cougars/Beavers matchup came up. Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and guest picker Vince Vaughn all picked the Cougars. It was when it was Lee Corso’s turn to pick that the joke at issue with Leaf came up.

“In the ‘Nobody Wants Us Bowl,'” Corso said alluding to the fact that Oregon State and Washington State are the only two schools in the Pac-12 that have not been invited to join another conference. “Nobody wants them. Poor guys.”

Thursday on Good Morning Football on NFL Network, Leaf followed the lead of Cougars head coach Jake Dickert, who after the game took issue with the joke. Leaf used some time to call out GameDay further for not using the moment about the game to speak positively about the direction both programs were going at this point in the season.

“They’ve always been a show that celebrates college football,” Leaf said. “Instead they chose to make it a joke because Washington State and Oregon State unfortunately don’t have a conference. And it is the ‘No One Wants Us Bowl.'”

Leaf said his love for GameDay and the guys that work on the show hasn’t changed, but he just couldn’t ignore the fact that the show squandered a chance to elevate that matchup on a national stage.

he added.

This isn’t the first time Ryan Leaf has spoken out on the College GameDay crew’s coverage of the game. He and Kirk Herbstreit exchanged barbs on X (formerly Twitter) over the segment on Sunday.

Washington State and Oregon State have banded together as the rest of the conference eroded over the summer. Both university presidents have expressed a commitment to making sure a premiere west coast conference rises from the ashes of the Pac-12.

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Showtime Sports President Won’t Confirm Network is Cutting Boxing Telecasts

“It’s the same rumor we’ve been hearing since 2018, and it’s usually guys who have a rooting interest against us who are spreading it.”

Jordan Bondurant

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As speculation continues to swirl that Showtime will be scaling back boxing coverage in the near future, Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza isn’t divulging any details.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Canelo Alvarez/Jermell Charlo fight on Showtime PPV, Espinoza said word that the Paramount Global network will be getting out of the boxing space has been talked about for several years. The network just continues on.

“It’s the same rumor we’ve been hearing since 2018, and it’s usually guys who have a rooting interest against us who are spreading it,” he said. “You just shrug it off, we continue doing what we’re doing, we weren’t going out of business in 2018 when guys were saying it, our response then was, ‘We’re just going to keep making good fights,’ and that’s what we’re doing now.”

Espinoza has faced questions about Showtime’s future in boxing as his public war of words with UFC president Dana White flared up again this week.

White basically said if boxing on Showtime goes away, he’s not gonna care.

“F–k Espinoza, and it’s about time that shitty product is off the air,” White said.

Stephen fired back in a press conference on Wednesday, turning the focus on where it should be: Canelo’s fight. He pointed out that the fight has already done $20 million in ticket revenue, something White wishes the UFC could pull off.

“That scumbag has absolutely nothing to do with the success of Canelo, Ryan Garcia or Terrence Crawford,” White said. “Those guys are mega stars and they are the ones responsible for driving the gates in their fights. For him to even try and take any credit at all shows you exactly what an arrogant, delusional POS that guy is.”

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