The Biggest Changes In The NFL This Year Is In The Broadcast Booth

The NFL kicks-off its 2022 with the first preseason games on August 4. As in previous years there will be a few changes from last season. Whereas the 2021 season brought about a 17^th game to the regular season and two more postseason games, the 2022 season will be about changes of a different sort.

Similar to other seasons, a number of elite players have changed uniforms. For example, Super Bowl quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan will be throwing passes for the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts respectively and Tyreek Hill will now be catching passes for the Miami Dolphins. A more notable change in 2022 is the Washington Football Team will be called the Washington Commanders.

With NFL games averaging 17 million viewers per telecast last season, the biggest change fans will notice in 2022 will occur in the broadcast booths. Never before has there been such an upheaval with television announcers. Of the league’s five media partners, only CBS is standing pat. Here is a breakdown of the changes.

ESPN: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have been a mainstay at Fox Sports as the lead broadcast team for the past twenty years, announcing “America’s Game of the Week”, the NFC Championship game along with six Super Bowls. In March the pair left Fox to become the announcers on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Aikman’s contract with Fox Sports expired at the end of the 2021 season and negotiations had reached an impasse. This opened the door for the Hall of Fame quarterback to leave for ESPN.

Joe Buck had one year left on his Fox Sports contract but was allowed to leave to join his long-time partner at ESPN. (ESPN gave Fox the rights to televise the Purdue-Penn State football game this fall.) It’s been reported that Aikman and Buck each signed a five-year contract at ESPN for $90 million and $75 million respectively. With ABC televising the Super Bowl in 2027, Buck and Aikman are expected to announce their seventh “big game” together coinciding when their five-year contract expires.

In total, Joe Buck spent 27 years at Fox Sports and his voice is also well-known with baseball fans. Buck was the announcer for “Game of the Week” and MLB’s The All-Star game. In addition, Joe Buck has been the play-by-play announcer for every World Series since 2000. At ESPN Joe Buck will be joining his wife Michelle Beisner-Buck as a reporter at the cable network. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be replacing Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese in the broadcast booth.

Also, on ESPN2 the “Manningcast”, an alternative Monday Night Football feed with Peyton and Eli Manning will be returning for a second season. In the offseason ESPN extended the contract through 2024. The new deal also includes producing other sports programs on ESPN. Last year, its debut season, the two quarterbacks worked ten MNF games averaging 1.6 million viewers.

Fox: Replacing Buck-Aikman as the top NFL broadcasting team on Fox will be Kevin Burkhart and former NFL tight end Greg Olson. Last season they were the Number 2 broadcast team on the network. They will also be the announcers when Fox televises Super Bowl LVII next February. Fox will also televise the 2025 Super Bowl.

Front Office Sports reports the new Number 2 broadcast team on Fox will be Joe Davis and Daryl Johnston. Johnston, a former NFL running back, has been an NFL color commentator on Fox since 2001. Joe Davis will also replace Joe Buck as the play-by-play announcer on Fox for MLB’s All-Star Game and World Series.

Looming in the background at Fox Sports is the ten-year $375 million contract Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady recently signed with the network. The agreement kicks in when the 45-years old future Hall of Famer retires as a player. By comparison, Spotrac reports Brady has earned $333 million as an NFL player over the course of his 23-year career.

NBC: NBC’s Sunday Night Football has been television’s top rated primetime program since 2011 and will also have a change in the broadcast booth. After 16 seasons as play-by-play announcer for SNF, Al Michaels is leaving. Michaels is headed to AmazonAMZN
Prime to announce their inaugural season of Thursday Night Football. Despite leaving Sunday Night Football, Michaels will continue to broadcast and contribute to events on NBC Sports. This includes play-by-play announcing for one NFL playoff game in January.

At Sunday Night Football Michaels will be replaced by Mike Tirico. Tirico joined NBC Sports in 2016, after 25 years at ABC and ESPN. Tirico has had a presence at a number of premier sporting events on NBC including the network’s host for the Olympics (replacing Bob Costas). Furthermore, while at ESPN, Tirico was the play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football from 2006 to 2015. After agreeing to a contract extension, Cris Collinsworth will be returning for a 14^th season at Sunday Night Football joining Mike Tirico. In addition, Melissa Stark will replace Michelle Tafoya as a sideline reporter.

Amazon Prime: Joining Al Michaels at Amazon Prime will be Kirk Herbstreit. Herbstreit has spent the past 26 seasons at ESPN’s College GameDay. Herbstreit recently agreed to a multi-year extension at ESPN and will continue working as a college football analyst along with being the new color commentator on Thursday Night Football. Previously, Amazon Prime was set to offer Sean McVay, the head coach of the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, a five-year, $100 million deal. The 36-year-old McVay turned it down.

CBS: The primary CBS announcers of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will remain in place in 2022. After retiring as an NFL quarterback, Tony Romo joined the CBS broadcast booth in 2017 which paid him a reported $3-4 million a season. After proving his worth as an analyst and being wooed by ESPN, Romo, in 2020 agreed to a ten-year contract extension at CBS at $18 million a year. In his final season as an NFL quarterback in 2016, Romo earned $18 million and had averaged $9.1 million per season over his 14-year career.

Previous to Romo’s deal most NFL announcers typically earned under $10 million a season. Romo’s contract extension made him the highest paid sports announcer and set in motion the more lucrative offers and agreements with NFL announcers and the networks. (Troy Aikman’s ESPN contract has since matched Tony Romo’s.)

These new contracts with announcers also come at a time when new (and higher) NFL rights fees take effect with next season. The NFL’s media partners will be shelling out $10 billion a year in an eleven-year agreement to televise/stream NFL games. The NFL’s media partners are hoping these new broadcast partnerships have the right chemistry to keep football fans engaged. They can rely on marketing prowess of the NFL that has helped to keep viewers watching and advertisers satisfied.