Amazon Was Set To Pay Sean McVay $100 Million To Walk Away From The Sidelines And Into Their Thursday Night Football Broadcasting Booth
Fox News - Super Bowl-winning coach Sean McVay said he’s staying with the Los Angeles Rams, but it sounds as if it’s coming at a cost.
Per Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Amazon was prepared to make McVay a $100 million man. Or more specifically, Amazon intended to offer McVay at least in the neighborhood of $100 million with a five-year contract.
The sides were expected to meet next week, per Marchand. The Rams, of course, knew this is coming and "have stepped up with a raise from his reported $8.5 million," Marchand wrote.
But McVay told ESPN on Friday that he has no intentions of leaving the Rams, and instead will be seeking a repeat.
"McVay had interest from Amazon and Fox. With Amazon, McVay could have potentially teamed with Al Michaels, who is on the 1 yard line to becoming Amazon’s lead play-by-player on its ‘Thursday Night Football’ telecasts," Marchand wrote. "Michaels has wanted to know who his analysts would be, but now Troy Aikman, John Lynch and McVay have all said no."
I don't know how, or why Amazon is so hell-bent on making NFL Thursday Night Football a thing on their streaming app, but they are.
It sucks. And I'm not being a hater. Just being honest.
As much as I think Bezos is a maniac drunk with money and power, he runs a hell of a business. Huge Amazon guy. Always have been. Love their stock too.
But calling a spade a spade here. Amazon Prime the streaming app is a pile of dog shit.
The interface, though not nearly as poor as Hulu's, is a joke.
The home screen and graphics look like they're 8-bit. Nothing is organized. Trying to find anything is impossible. And most importantly, the content is garbage.
Chief explained it to Eddie and I a few weeks ago on one of our Dogwalk recordings, but they used to be a one-stop shop for pretty much any documentary ever produced. But once the woke police started going after anybody and everybody they don't agree with, Bezos decided to purge the library of anything anybody could somehow find offensive. Which was basically everything. So now it's bare bones.
But I digress…
Sean McVay rumors were floating around Super Bowl week that he could somehow, unfathomably, step away from coaching at the end of this season. And somehow after winning, he didn't kill them. So they actually had legs.
Now we know why. And I don't blame him one bit.
Los Angeles mortgaged their entire future to win this season in their own house. It paid off, but at a huge expense.
After trading their 2022 and 2023 first-round picks for Stafford, 2022 second and third-round picks for Miller, the 2022 fourth to the Texans in the Brandin Cooks deal, the 2022 sixth and 2023 fourth for Sony Michel, their GM Snead has a lot less to work with in the next two years than every other GM.
The Rams also have the least amount of cap space in the league in 2022: less than $5 million as it is projected right now. Yikes.
Their due up free agents look like this -
NT Sebastian Joseph-Day, CB Darious Williams, G Austin Corbett, C Brian Allen, RB Sony Michel, K Matt Gay, LB Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, OL Joseph Noteboom, TE Johnny Mundt, CB Donte’ Deayon, Troy Reeder (RFA), John Wolford (ERFA)
It's going to be impossible for them to retain Sebastian Joseph-Day and Darious Williams and Austin Corbett and Brian Allen and Joseph Noteboom.
They might be able to convince Von Miller to restructure his deal in order to stay. If he wants to. But things look even more grim in 2023.
They're due up 2023 free agents look like this -
QB Matthew Stafford, RT Rob Havenstein, RB Darrell Henderson, S Taylor Rapp, DT Greg Gaines, G David Edwards, LB Justin Hollins, CB David Long, DT A’Shawn Robinson.
Given how grim the near future looks for this team, could you blame Sean McVay for taking $20 Million a year over the next 5 years to work once a week on Thursday nights calling whatever piece of shit matchup the NFL has slated? Take about a walk in the park.
Amazon is on a warpath trying to snatch up whoever they can with their monopoly money to bolster their NFL broadcast roster.
They almost secured a deal to land Troy Aikman before ESPN swooped in and snagged him away from FOX, in a deal rumored to be "comparable to the $18 million annual salary that Tony Romo gets from CBS, if not more."
NBC Sports’ Al Michaels “has a standing offer from Amazon Prime Video that may reach $11 million a year, according to sources.”
Former NFL stars Marshawn Lynch and Tony Gonzalez “will likely be a part of its pregame coverage.” Drew Brees, who joined NBC Sports following his retirement last year, “remains an Amazon Thursday night possibility.” Broadcasting wild cards for Amazon Prime include Tom Brady, Sean Payton and Kurt Warner.
With all this money on the table, and all this possible fire power, you have to think that once the first domino falls, and the first guy takes the first step, the rest will fall in line.
But can you ever seen Amazon Prime being a "go-to" for NFL football?