What’s going on with NFL television booths right now is almost as compelling as what’s taking place on the field.
We already had the situation with Tony Romo being pulled from calling games by CBS and J.J. Watt taking Romo’s spot in the network’s No. 1 booth.
Last week, we learned that Troy Aikman is miffed that ESPN has not signed him to a new deal with his contract expiring after this season.
Now comes word, via The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, that Kirk Herbstreit, who was set to be a free agent after this season, has re-upped with Prime Video for “Thursday Night Football.”
The Herbstreit news is a little surprising given that Fox’s Greg Olsen is a free agent after this season. I would’ve thought Prime Video would’ve made a big play for the popular analyst who is stuck in the No. 2 booth at Fox. You could also now envision a scenario where Aikman would be a free agent, which should’ve been intriguing to Amazon.
Another odd thing about the Herbstreit news is that, according to Marchand, Prime Video has a clause that it can move on from Herbstreit if Rams coach Sean McVay leaves the sidelines for the booth.
It’s kinda weird to me that Herbstreit would agree to be second fiddle in this set up. It’s like telling your significant other that they can move in with you, but if a younger, hotter, richer person comes along, they have to move out.
Let’s assume that McVay stays with the Rams, causing Herbstreit to stay with Prime Video. That means you could have a situation after this season where Tony Romo, Greg Olsen and Troy Aikman are free agents. The problem for them, is that there won’t be many No. 1 analyst jobs available. The only one that would be open is ESPN and “Monday Night Football.”
Fox is not moving on from Tom Brady. Cris Collinsworth signed a new three-year deal with NBC this past offseason. Herbstreit will be back with Prime Video. If Romo is indeed gone from CBS, that would mean the network is happy with J.J. Watt as its lead analyst.
I guess there could be a scenario in which CBS tries to land Olsen or Aikman, leading the network to slide Watt back down with Ian Eagle, but why would CBS want to insult Watt, who has been a good solider for them, like that?
No matter how this plays out, an excellent analyst is going to be left out of a job. At least a No. 1 job.
Like I said at the top, I’m just as fascinated to see how this all plays as I am in who wins the Super Bowl this season.
Week 3 NFL Ratings Roundup
It was another strong week for the NFL when it comes to viewership.
• Fox drew 17.9 million million viewers for its early window on Sunday, which featured the Chargers-Bills game.
• CBS pulled in 24.9 million viewers for the Ravens-Cowboys thriller at 4:25 p.m.
• NBC’s telecast of Rams-Broncos generated 20.8 million viewers.
• ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” actually outrated “Sunday Night Football” with 22.6 for Eagles-Bears.
• Prime Video’s Falcons-Packers game averaged 16.82 million viewers.
Other Stuff
• Tonight is a GREAT sports night.
• What Major League Baseball did to the Braves and Phillies, as well as the fans in Atlanta, on Wednesday was a complete disgrace. T
The teams, and the fans who wanted to go to Game 3, had to wait until after the Cubs-Padres game, which ended close to 1 a.m. ET.
I understand there is very little wiggle room when it comes to the schedule during the wild-card round, but there has to be a better way. You can’t have two teams, in his case, Phillyu and Atlanta, wait until 1 a.m. to find out if they are playing at 2 p.m. or 8 p.m. the following day. You just can’t.
• I don’t love teams going crazy after winning the wild-card round, but I can’t deny that the celebrations are amazing content. Here are a few videos from Wednesday that were highly amusing.
Chicago’s Munetake Murakami wanted everyone to know he was drunk.
Drinking was also a topic for San Diego’s Fernando Tatis.
White Sox pitcher Mike Vasil gave a WWE-esque postgame interview.
Vasil also interviewed his teammate, pitcher Sean Burke, who made headlines the day before for saying, “This is my life. I don't have family, no girl, no kids. This is all I do."
• This is so, so bad.
The Traina Thoughts Podcast
“Pardon the Interruption” host Mike Wilbon was my guest on this week’s interview episode of “The Traina Thoughts Podcast.” Wilbon was outstanding. Brutally honest, no punches pulled and entertaining. I can’t recommend this interview enough.
In Closing
If you love all things “Beverly Hills 90210,” like I do, you must watch this.
Lucky we dodged a bullet with the Falcons.