Former Chiefs Star Tony Gonzalez ‘Immensely’ Enjoying New Amazon Prime Video Role

When AmazonAMZN
signed a groundbreaking, 11-year, $13 billion deal last March to exclusively stream Thursday Night Football, Tony Gonzalez knew he had to be part of it.

“Right from the beginning, I knew I wanted to do Thursday Night Football,” the NFL Hall of Famer exclusively shared. “It was a chance to be part of something new. That’s the coolest part.”

It definitely represents a change of scenery for Gonzalez.

Though he has been on TV for almost a decade, following his 17-year NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons, it had mostly been working from the studio.

He said he’s “immensely” enjoying traveling to each stadium as a co-host of Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football alongside Charissa Thompson, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth and Richard Sherman.

“To be able to go on the road consistently throughout the year and have that energy from the crowd,” Gonzalez said, “it’s been incredible.”

Gonzalez already knew Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos. His ex-girlfriend and mother to his son, Nikko, is Lauren Sanchez, Bezos’ girlfriend. Both Bezos and Sanchez even attended Gonzalez’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony and sat next to Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan.

Bezos, though, was not the one to approach Gonzalez and offer him the co-host job.

“No, I wish it was that way,” Gonzalez said, chuckling. “He has nothing to do with that.”

On the television side of Amazon’s vast business empire, Gonzalez’s new job reunites with him two of his former FOX NFL Kickoff colleagues, Spandan “Spoon” Daftary, the senior coordinating producer of Amazon Prime Video’s pregame/halftime/postgame shows, and Thompson.

While working alongside Thompson, Gonzalez already has crafted a role as an eloquent studio personality who’s not afraid to cut down a team in an amusing way.

After calling the Washington Commanders and Chicago Bears the “JV teams of the NFL” during the pregame show before that Week Six contest, he issued an even more critical assessment during halftime, dubbing them “freshmen teams.”

Though some of the games — like Commanders vs. Bears — have been ugly affairs, ratings for Prime Video’s inaugural Thursday Night Football have been strong.

Through seven games Thursday Night Football is averaging 10.29 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Emboldened by its debut season, Amazon even announced a deal to exclusively stream the first ever Black Friday game the Friday after Thanksgiving. That will take place on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, and the participating teams will be announced upon the release of the entire 2023 schedule.

Along with his new role at Amazon, Gonzalez initially hoped to remain at FOX like Thompson but declined to mention why it didn’t work out with his previous network.

He, though, hopes to replicate the success the success that Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson have enjoyed on the top-rated FOX NFL Sunday for nearly 30 years.

Just as those personalities were three of the pillars of the original FOX pregame show, Gonzalez hopes to serve that same foundational role for Amazon Prime Video.

“I’m so glad to be part of something from the beginning, from the ground floor,” he said. “You knew that once Amazon puts its fingerprints on it, it’s gonna be great.”