This NFL offseason has seen a number of shake-ups in the world of NFL broadcasting, including Troy Aikman joining ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew and Kirk Herbstreit joining Amazon for Thursday Night Football next season. There are also ongoing conversations about what it all means for people like Sean Payton, Greg Olsen, Drew Brees, and others.
Friday saw another domino fall that will greatly impact NFL (and MLB) coverage next season. According to the NY Post’s Andrew Marchand, Joe Buck is expected to join ESPN alongside Aikman for their coverage of Monday Night Football next season.
The news that Buck and Aikman will be reunited (even though they weren’t apart for that long) has the NFL world talking.
Buck’s deal with ESPN is expected to be for five years in the range of $60-75 million. Aside from football, Buck will reportedly be involved with producing some ESPN+ content for the company as well.
This news has an impact beyond just the NFL as Buck has been the voice of the World Series on Fox since 1996. Given this new deal, it is all but certain that he won’t be involved with that going forward.
This move has a ton of ramifications for other networks looking to solidify their top broadcasting groups going forward. NBC’s Al Michaels was the other name rumored to join Aikman at ESPN, so this likely means that he will head to Amazon.
This is a huge get for ESPN and a devastating loss for Fox, as they will now need to replace their top NFL booth next season as well as their lead voice for the World Series going forward.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.