Cowboys legend Troy Aikman rumored to join Amazon for "Thursday Night Football"
Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman could end up leaving FOX to announce the NFL broadcast for Amazon in 2022.
Amazon plans to take control over NFL Thursday Night Football for 2022. The multinational tech giant had the broadcast rights to a few early Thursday night games in the 2021 season before the NFL Network had a couple of exclusive broadcasts. Thursday Night Football can now be viewed on FOX and the NFL Network for the rest of the season.
Troy Aikman is currently the lead analyst for FOX's NFL coverage with Joe Buck at his side and has been in that role for the last two decades. Aikman and Buck are among the top broadcasting duos for the NFL right now, behind only Tony Romo and Jim Nantz with CBS (arguably).
The news was reported by Mike McCarthy of Front Office Sports, who stated that Amazon is targeting Troy Aikman to be the game analyst for Thursday Night Football as part of a "dream team". McCarthy went on to name Al Michaels as the likely second man in the "dream team" and the play-by-play announcer for Amazon. Al Michaels would have to leave his post with Sunday Night Football on NBC with Cris Collinsworth, but he would benefit greatly from joining Aikman at Amazon.
Michaels is a near-lock to take the position with Amazon. For Aikman's part, taking on the role would be a smart choice, too. Aikman could overtake Tony Romo, who makes $20 million, as the highest-paid analyst. Amazon could easily offer him such a contract to finalize the deal.
The NFL could end up turning more to streaming services to broadcast their games in the near future. They have been sporadically toying with Thursday Night Football on Amazon. There is also a rumored deal to put NFL Sunday Ticket on ESPN+, which would further ESPN's hold on the NFL. The most important part of the possible deal is that fans will finally be able to pay to watch specific teams or games or even bundles of games. That would also open up Disney+ and Hulu+ to possible broadcast games.
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