Dan Patrick was asked about his feeling about Amazon’s recently announced broadcast booth for Thursday Night Football. He said Thursday on his FOX Sports Radio show that he liked the pairing of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit and he is tired of hearing people that say Herbstreit won’t succeed in the role.
“I don’t buy into this ‘Well, Kirk never played in the NFL!’. Can we stop with that?” Patrick asked his audience. “Al Michaels didn’t either. And there are guys that played in the NFL that can’t broadcast an NFL game.”
Audiences don’t often think about the broadcaster’s NFL resume while watching a game according to Dan Patrick. He doesn’t remember the audience using a color analyst’s playing days to measure his credibility before.
In fact, Patrick says that plenty of these guys have had their resumes lost to time.
“There are people that didn’t know John Madden coached in the NFL,” he said.
According to Patrick, Kirk Herbstreit is a very good compliment to Michaels, who brings plenty of NFL knowledge, having covered the league for years. Thursday Night Football, in Patrick’s opinion, will be able to offer fans a unique perspective with Herbstriet have three years of background to offer on rookies during their first professional season.
The only part of Herbstreit calling an NFL game that concerns Dan Patrick is the schedule. In fact, he is surprised that Amazon even made a move to hire Herbstreit. He expected that ESPN would say the hectic schedule it would create for one of its most iconic football broadcasters would be a problem for them.
“Let’s say you have to prepare,” Patrick said, working out Herbstreit’s new schedule in his head. “You go in Wednesday to talk to these teams. You can do that over Zoom, I guess, but you’re going in. You’ve gotta hit the ground running all day Thursday. Friday you’re gonna travel to wherever College GameDay is. You’re gonna get up early Saturday morning. You could be in Oxford, Mississippi. Then you’ve got that night game with Fowler that could be USC/Oregon. Man, that’s pretty intense.”
He did note that between his Amazon deal and a new contract at ESPN that Kirk Herbstreit likely doubled his salary. “I’m sure that helps,” Dan Patrick joked.
