Kirk Herbstreit is picking up a new gig.
The former Ohio State quarterback will reportedly be the color commentator for Thursday night NFL games on Amazon, according to NBC Sports’ Peter King. He is expected to remain with ESPN for college football coverage.
From King’s report:
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. (He’s likely to continue his current ESPN/ABC duties as well.) Andrew Marchand of the New York Post was first to connect the Amazon-Herbstreit dots on Feb. 27.
Herbstreit, who played for the Buckeyes from 1989-92, has been on ESPN’s College GameDay since 1996 and has been the color commentator for ABC’s Saturday Night Football since 2006. While Herbstreit has said he wants to continue college football games, he has also expressed a desire to call more NFL games after calling occasional games with his Saturday Night Football partner Chris Fowler over the past two years.
Amazon has not yet announced who its play-by-play commentator for Thursday Night Football will be, though NBC’s Al Michaels has been linked to the job for some time while Fox’s Joe Buck could also be a candidate.
The Thursday night games called by Herbstreit will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video and will not air on traditional TV except for in the local markets of the two teams playing.
