For so long there was relative calm in the way the sport was broadcasted. When NBC took over SNF in 2006, along with ESPN picking up MNF, it was basically status quo for 15 years. There were a few changes - most notably John Madden retiring and getting replaced by Cris Collinsworth starting in 2009, and then Phil Simms getting sidelined for Tony Romo in 2016 - it was status quo. NFC was on FOX, AFC was on CBS, good games were on NBC, average games on ESPN and quasi-shit games on TNF.
Well, that's all long gone - we're entering the wild west of who has what, and also who is announcing those games. And in each of their different ways, each move represents the end of one era and the start of a new one. The end of the networks having the main leverage, and the start of the start-ups splashing money around in ways we didn't think possible. In a weird way, ESPN probably always had the cash to steal/pay for Joe Buck and Troy Aikman - but it took until they got back in the Super Bowl Rotation, finally got their MNF flex-scheduling and seeing Amazon pony up for Al Michaels, to make it happen.
People's opinions of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman may vary (for me, by the end I was fully pro both of them) but what is undeniable is the formula of them plus two great NFC teams and that unendingly workable NFL on FOX music just equaled something special. Those three things held a special meaning, and while we still get Buck and Aikman, having them on ESPN is just different.
Even more is the idea that Thursday Night Football will be just on Amazon Prime (granted, I have Amazon Prime - and by and large its a whole lot more accessible than the NFL Network ever was), but the idea that Al Michaels is there, weirdly with Kirk Herbstreit by his side, is just hard to conceptualize.
Even more than my 'equation' around Buck, is a stronger one with Al Michaels, NBC and a great primetime game at night. Even if historically SNF games weren't nearly as competitive as they should be on paper, it also always felt like a real big game, a big moment. I really wonder if Al Michaels calling games on a streaming service will be nearly as similar. I doubt it given it will take a long time before I can associate Kirk Herbstreit with the NFL - it just doesn't make sense. Especially for Amazon to plop down what I imagine was a lot of money to get Al Michaels only then to randomly just pick a college football guy to do color?
ESPN and Amazon are all new - and credit ESPN for finally doing what they should have 16 long years ago. The various incarnations of the MNF on ESPN after Jon Gruden left were all comically bad - cresting in this past year where as much as I think Fowler, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese were improvements over their more recent predecessors, they were also way worse than the Manningcast.
What's left though I guess is CBS, which at least is nice given how the power of the NFL seems to have shifted mightily to the AFC over the offseason. But before we close, let's give a quick cheer for Kevin Burkhardt. I remember listening to him on WFAN more than 10 years ago, when he was a part-time overnight guy every now and then. He was also the sideline reporter for the excellent SNY Mets telecast, and finally graduated to FOX work on NFL and yoeman's work as the host of the MLB postgame show. It was a major come-up, but to me he was always the underrated guy on WFAN, a smart, polished, slyly fun voice on a network with many more outsized personalities - few were as consistently cool.
I'm glad for Burkhardt. The overall landscape of NFL on tv changed, and I personally think it changed for the worse, but if it ends with MNF getting better (even if I'm Team #Manningcast), and Burkhardt getting a big role, in the end I guess I'm ok with it.
