Troy Aikman is getting $90 million over five years to jump from Fox to ESPN. This lines up with the $17.5 million Tony Romo gets from CBS each year. Sean McVay was offered $100 million to leave the Rams for Amazon. Kirk Herbstreit is being wooed by someone for the NFL while continuing his $6 million per year college deal with EPSN. Did I mention that these are announcers, not players?
Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is confused. So am I. Al Michaels might get multi-millions from someone if he decides to keep going at age 77. Al Michaels had an immortal moment 42 years ago with, "Do you believe in miracles?" but never once since then did I decide to watch a game because he was doing it. Yes, perhaps I would enjoy a game more with Michaels on the mic rather than Chris Myers, but I'm not changing my plans depending which gets an assignment. Dear CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, Amazon and whoever else is doing NFL games, I'm going to watch anyway. Why are you doing this? Can you send some stupid money my way?
The new version of the USFL kicks off April 16. I might watch for a while, then I'll probably get bored and switch it off. Even if the almighty (?) Troy Aikman himself is doing the game, whether I continue to watch depends on the players on the field.
By the way CBS, I think the bloom is off the Romo rose. He's now about 20% insightful and 80% annoying. But rather than stop watching, I'll just deploy the mute button to enjoy a few moments of peace.
Update 5/1/22: I watched a USFL game Saturday. Both of the quarterbacks were terrible, but I watched until Birmingham nailed it down at the end. I have no idea who the announcers were.
