It was a coup when FOX signed Tom Brady to a monstrous contract earlier this year. But Patriots owner Robert Kraft apparently tried to engineer his own power play for the network.
Kraft reached out to Rupert Murdoch, the 91-year-old media scion and owner of News Corp, FOX’ parent company, to try and land Al Michaels for the network’s top NFL play-by-play job, reports Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. The job was vacated when Joe Buck jumped to ESPN, along with Troy Aikman.
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Obviously, Michaels didn’t sign with FOX, instead joining Amazon to be the lead voice for its new exclusive “Thursday Night Football” package. Michaels’ deal with Amazon is reportedly worth at least $10 million annually — a figure that one assumes he would’ve been able to land at FOX, too.
Michaels will call TNF alongside Kirk Herbstreit, who will remain in his role as ESPN’s lead college football analyst.
Marchand reports that Michaels, 77, tried to keep his NBC gig, but that fell through. NBC promoted Mike Tirico to the “Sunday Night Football” broadcast booth, a move that was long expected.
As the longtime chair of the NFL’s broadcast committee, Kraft is one of the most powerful figures in media. The NFL is the last product that droves of people will consistently watch live, making it the most valuable entity in TV. Execs who want to do business with the NFL must go through Kraft.
But apparently, even his sway has limits. Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen will be FOX’s top NFL team this season.