Donovan McNabb and the State of Football
As the NFL releases its regular-season schedule on Thursday, it’s angling to help one player succeed: Amazon.
The tech giant will hold exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football,” and the league is leveraging its relationship with Amazon to establish a streaming presence and explore new broadcasting capabilities.
- Amazon Prime Video will broadcast 15 games with no repeat teams in the upcoming season. “TNF” games will kick off at 8:20 p.m. ET.
- Last season’s 14 playoff teams will all be included in Amazon’s schedule.
- The Kansas City Chiefs will host the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2 on Sept. 15 — the first game on Amazon Prime Video.
- Amazon is in the first year of an 11-year deal worth $1 billion annually for the midweek contest.
“I really believe that Amazon Prime’s going to change the way people watch football,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at an Amazon event last week. “Amazon’s platform is going to allow us to do things that we’ve only dreamed about to date.”
Amazon would like to broadcast a game on Black Friday following Thanksgiving, but the league won’t schedule such a game until 2023 at the earliest.
Brady’s Reschedule
Tom Brady forced NFL schedule-makers to scrap much of their work after he reversed his decision to retire. Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers were among the top television draws during the 2021 playoffs.
The Bucs will play the Seattle Seahawks in Munich on Nov. 13, one of five international games. There will also be three games in London in October, plus one in Mexico on Nov. 21.
