What has long been reported became official on Wednesday. Within minutes of each other, Amazon announced Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will call the streaming giant's Thursday Night Football package, while ESPN revealed it has extended Herbstreit's deal as its lead college football analyst. That means continuing his duties as College GameDay's lead analyst each Saturday morning and the Saturday Night Football analyst that night.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of Prime Video’s game-changing new ‘Thursday Night Football’ telecasts, and it’s an honor to join the booth alongside Al,” Herbstreit said in a statement via Amazon. “Together, we will build the next generation of NFL programming. I’m proud to be part of the Amazon team and can’t wait to get started.”
“I am so proud of the work our ESPN and ABC team does on college football – this has been my family for 26 years and my passion for the sport is unwavering,” Herbstreit said in a statement via ESPN. “Calling college games and being a part of College GameDay is important to me. I am very appreciative of Jimmy Pitaro for his leadership and for allowing me to continue in this role with Disney.”
The money, I'm sure, is outstanding. The New York Post reported Herbstreit will make $10 million-plus for his Thursday night work alone, and his ESPN deal keeps him under contract for five years with a raise.
Professionally, adding a regular NFL game expands Herbstreit's portfolio and allows him to check a box off his bucket list. Herbstreit was GameDay's lead guy for a decade (with regular Thursday night college work) before he moved to Saturday nights in 2006. With a decade and a half of Saturday double-dipping under his belt, he clearly felt hungry enough to add more meat to his plate.
“You’re looking for that next challenge to kind of invigorate yourself and get yourself excited about, and this is going to be a big challenge,” Herbstreit told the Post.
But I seem to be the only person wondering how this is all going to work, exactly.
It's not digging ditches, selling insurance or scrubbing toilets, but, man, that is a lot of work.
Over roughly a 48-hour period from Thursday night to Saturday night, Herbstreit will be on live television for 12 hours, on repeat from Labor Day to New Year's Day and then some.
Here's an example of a typical Herbstreit week this fall:
Tuesday: Fly to Denver ahead of Thursday night broadcast
Wednesday: Meet with Broncos players and coaches, observe walk-throughs
Thursday: Broadcast Raiders-Broncos for Amazon
Friday: Fly to Athens ahead of GameDay broadcast, conference call with Michigan and Wisconsin coaches ahead of Saturday Night broadcast
Saturday morning: Three-hour GameDay broadcast from Athens
Saturday afternoon: Fly to Madison
Saturday night: Broadcast Michigan-Wisconsin on ABC.
Sunday morning: Fly home, reacquaint himself with family (three of the Herbstreit's four boys are in college; the youngest, Chase, was a freshman QB at Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School last fall, despite the family living in Nashville), prepare to start the process over again. Don't forget, Herbstreit also appeared on ESPN's weekday studio shows -- SportsCenter, the Tuesday night CFP show -- while jetting to and from Nashville each Friday night to watch his sons play football. Presumably that will continue as well, because why wouldn't it?
In between his 12 hours on air and his 12-ish hours in the air, Herbstreit will have to know the Broncos and Raiders top-to-bottom -- all 92 active players, their schemes and tendencies, all relevant storylines -- know Michigan and Wisconsin top-to-bottom -- same as before, but with more players -- and be ESPN's leading expert on Auburn's quarterback situation, the source of Indiana's unexpected turnaround, why USC's offense isn't clicking, and whether or not we should hit the collective panic button after a 4-3 start to the Brent Venables era at Oklahoma.
Again, all the above beats working for a living. No one's asking you to feel sorry for Herbstreit, who knows exactly what he's getting into and will be paid a fortune to do so.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be monumental,” told the Post. “For four months, I’m not really going to have any days off.”
What I am asking is how Herbstreit can possibly deliver A-plus work to his millions of viewers, game after game, week after week, with this unprecedented schedule.
To be fair to Herbstreit, he's far from the only broadcaster to call two football games each weekend. His ESPN colleagues Dave Pasch (Cardinals), Andre Ware (Texans) and Bob Wischusen (Jets) call college football games each Saturday and NFL games each Sunday. Plenty of play-by-play men -- Kenny Albert, Ian Eagle and Mike Tirico come to mind -- keep ridiculous schedules hopping sport to sport for 52 weeks a year.
But in fairness to my column, none of the above have ever starred in a 3-hour talk show in between college and NFL games. There's a reason this workload is unprecedented.
While Herbstreit's schedule is without precedent, we do have a precedent-adjacent example, from this past winter, from Herbstreit himself.
On New Year's Eve, Herbstreit and Chris Fowler called the Georgia-Michigan Orange Bowl, live from Miami. When that game wrapped right around the time the ball was dropping in Times Square, Herbstreit hopped in a plane and red-eyed to Pasadena. He was on the air eight hours later for GameDay, live from the Rose Bowl. If you remember that, it's because that's when Herbstreit stepped in it, saying, "I just think this era of player doesn't love football." That comment was widely and swiftly denounced, and Herbstreit later walked it back. It's obviously the type of comment he wouldn't have made on a full night's sleep. (Herbstreit called the Ohio State-Utah classic later that day without incident.)
I'm not wishing or predicting failure on Herbstreit. His passion for football, and specifically college football, is admirable, especially given the set-for-life money he's already earned after a quarter-century on ESPN's air. I just think it's worth asking if his schedule can possibly serve viewers' interests.
Either way, Herbstreit's football triple-dip will provide interesting viewing this fall. This triple-dip will be a high wire act we'll get to view in real time on Thursday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday night -- every week, for four straight months.