Al Michaels Officially Heading to Amazon

Last week rumors were swirling that legendary sportscaster Al Michaels would be making Amazon his new broadcasting home. Well on Monday it became official that the long time voice of both Monday Night and Sunday Night Football, will now call Thursday Night's home.

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, who has been on top of all the changes in the NFL broadcasting world, Michaels will team up with ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit to call 16 games next fall. Michaels is reportedly looking at a three-year deal in the neighborhood of what Joe Buck got paid by ESPN to call its Monday Night games. Buck is making $75 million over five years to call games with his old Fox broadcast partner Troy Aikman.

The move to streaming Amazon means that Michaels' former broadcaster partner Cris Collinsworth will team up with Mike Tirico on Sunday Nights on NBC.

Interestingly enough, Marchand reports that Michaels investigated both the ESPN and FOX vacancies before agreeing to a deal with Amazon.  ESPN would have been interested in Michaels had Buck stayed at FOX. Once Buck left for ESPN, "Michaels and his representatives reached out to Fox to see whether it would want him, according to sources, but Fox, with two of the next three Super Bowls, has been inclined to go with Kevin Burkhardt," who has never called a Super Bowl. Michaels has called 11 Super Bowls.