The NFL is ready to kick off its first Sunday of a new season, but a good part of the game won’t be taking place on the field.
\n\nEven as play-by-play stalwarts like Fox’s Greg Olsen, ESPN’s Joe Buck and Troy Aikman and Amazon’s Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit give fans real-time details and analysis for Fox’s Sunday afternoon pigskin sessions, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” they may be thinking about something else. Each of these chroniclers of the gridiron knows his contract with the media company backing their prominent perches ends after the current season, according to three people familiar with the situation.
\n\nTV networks rushed to line up top talent to call games after the NFL struck a pivotal 11-year rights deal in 2021. At the time, the thought from many TV sports chiefs was that they had to spend money to make money. Tony Romo carved out new terrain at CBS Sports in 2017 after revealing a knack for predicting game play — all but forcing CBS to re-sign the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback to a multi-season pact in 2020 valued at around $17 million a year.
\n\nSince that time, most of CBS’…
Original source: https://variety.com/v/tv/