With Troy Aikman off the board, Amazon is reportedly locked in on ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit for Thursday Night Football. Herbstreit is best known for his work on ESPN’s college football coverage, but he is undeniably the biggest name available and has called a few NFL games in the past.
Still, that isn’t enough for some critics, including Joe Cowart of 1010XL in Jacksonville. On Monday’s edition of XL Primetime, the station’s midday show, he expressed his disbelief at the idea of Herbie calling NFL games with regularity.
“A lot of people have laughed at the idea of Kirk Herbstreit even doing NFL football,” he said.
Joe Cowart said that he can’t see the NFL wanting someone who isn’t “an NFL guy” on one of its primetime broadcasts. When colleagues told Cowart that all that matters is that Herbstreit is a football guy, he pushed back, suggesting that these are just rumors and may never become reality.
“This is probably an agent power play,” Cowart said. “There’s nothing wrong with that either. It drives me a little crazy when you sit there and think…I don’t want a guy that doesn’t excel in the NFL game to get that much money to tell me what I am looking for in an NFL game. I don’t!”
Cowart says that Kirk Herbstreit is undeniably popular. That is what makes him valuable to Amazon. He also said he isn’t sure that is enough for Herbstreit to “deserve” the gig. He compared it to someone taking Dick Vitale from ESPN to have him work on NBA games.
The biggest swing Joe Cowart took came when one of his co-hosts said that Herbstreit watches the NFL and knows what is going on in the league. Cowart said that he isn’t sure that is true. He assumes that Herbstreit spends Sundays and Mondays watching what he missed on Saturdays.
While all of his colleagues disagreed with Cowart and pointed out that ESPN has turned NFL games over to Kirk Herbstreit each of the last two seasons, Cowart remained steadfast. He said it is easy to prepare for a single game.
“I don’t think he watches the NFL game except for that week. He hones up and does it that week,” Cowart declared.