Amazon "has settled on" Kirk Herbstreit for its Thursday Night Football booth

NBC Sports

NBC Sports' Peter King, following up on the New York Post's Andrew Marchand's report last week, reports: "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.)" Herbstreit has been a key part of ESPN College Gameday since 1996 and also serves an analyst for ABC and ESPN's Saturday Night Football. "My first reaction: It seems weird," says King. "Amazon would rather have a very good college football analyst who’s never had a regular NFL job do the games than, say, Drew Brees or Sean Payton or Kurt Warner? My second reaction: Herbstreit’s a pro, he’s a big name to legions of college football fans, he must really want to break the college-to-NFL glass ceiling, Amazon surely wanted to make a splash with this hire, and Herbstreit’s a non-status-quo guy. He’s different. It’s a little edgy, a little risky. All that, just my educated guess."