You’d be surprised how many people play “Fantasy On-Air Staffing” in the sports media business. I know of one prominent ESPN-er who for fun would staff the company’s on-air talent if ESPN ever acquired the Olympic Games. (Since he’s already called Olympic basketball many times, put me down for Mike Breen broadcasting Olympic track as a change up. “Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400-meter hurdles … Bang!”)
As part of a query for reader questions a couple of weeks ago — read Part 1 of the media mailbag here and Part 2 here — I received a notable question from a reader named Joshua B.:
The year is 2030. Who are the lead play-by-play and color commentators for NFL coverage on Amazon, CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC? In other words, are there any up-and-coming play-by-play announcers and game analysts, current players or coaches that will shoot up to the top?
Joshua’s question seemed like a fun exercise, so I thought I’d play it out in column form. Feel free to offer your thoughts in the comments.
First, 2030 isn’t that far away, and the NFL is currently at the beginning of new agreements with its media partners that started with the 2023 season and run through the 2033 season. There is a big caveat with the deal — the NFL can opt out of the deals with NBC, CBS, Fox and Amazon after seven years (the 2029 season) and Disney/ESPN the following year. You’d have to think the NFL will do that, so we can’t say firmly the carriers in 2030 will be the exact same ones as they are today. (I’d bet big Netflix gets in more fully in 2030.)
With the big-picture contractual situation noted above, I took a shot at how the top NFL booths might look in 2030 based on the reality of contracts, ages and just my own fun:
Fox: Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen
ABC/ESPN: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman
CBS: Jim Nantz and Tony Romo
NBC: Mike Tirico and Mike Tomlin
Amazon: Ian Eagle and Sean McVay
Netflix: Adam Amin and Travis Kelce
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