BNG-L-WHATSNEW-09-6
Shortly after announcing his return to the NFL from a brief retirement this spring, San Mateo native and 45-year-old Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady signed the richest contract in league history.
Brady’s reported 10-year, $375 million deal won’t be paid by the Buccaneers, the Patriots or any other NFL franchise hoping to have the seven-time Super Bowl champion under center.
He’ll instead earn the money broadcasting for FOX after his playing career ends.
In a league that has introduced dramatic shifts in extra points, overtime and the schedule itself (Hello, 17-game regular season), perhaps the greatest change has taken place in the broadcast booth, where exorbitant media rights deals and broadcasting contracts have altered the fan experience and made the rich even richer.
When teams take the field this fall, here are some of the changes you can expect.
Monday Night Football
Two of the most notable offseason acquisitions in the NFL this year belong to ESPN, which signed former FOX partners Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to serve as the play-by-play voice and color commentators on Monday Night Football.
For the second straight year, the NFL will have one wild-card round playoff matchup take place on Monday Night Football.
Thursday Night Football
After airing on FOX and Amazon Prime Video from 2018-2021, Thursday Night Football will now be exclusive to Amazon’s streaming platform. The service went on a massive hiring spree this spring, luring Al Michaels away from NBC and Sunday Night Football to work alongside former ESPN college football color commentator Kirk Herbstreit in the booth.
Amazon has also hired former NFL stars such as Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick and others to work on studio shows and live productions.
Sundays on FOX
With Buck and Aikman headed to ESPN, FOX elevated Kevin Burkhardt and former NFL tight end Greg Olsen to its top play-by-play and color commentator positions. Burkhardt and Olsen will be joined by sideline reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on FOX’s biggest game each week.
Olsen’s time in FOX’s No. 1 booth could be short-lived, and he knows it. Brady is already paid nearly twice as much as the next highest-earning analyst in football (Tony Romo), and FOX isn’t going to relegate him to the bench when his time comes.
Sunday Night Football
After Michaels departed for Amazon, NBC named Mike Tirico as the play-by-play voice of Sunday Night Football. Tirico will work alongside Michaels’ former partner, Cris Collinsworth, and new sideline reporter Melissa Stark, who replaces Michele Tafoya after Tafoya changed careers to become a political advisor and commentator.
Overtime
Following one of the most thrilling overtime finishes in NFL postseason history, the league amended playoff overtime rules to allow both teams an opportunity to possess the football.
After the Chiefs scored a touchdown on the first possession of their AFC Divisional Round matchup to cap off a 42-36 win over the Bills in January, the Colts and Eagles proposed a rule change that was adopted that requires both teams to possess the ball.
If the score is tied after each team has one possession, the next team to score wins the game. If the score remains tied at the end of an initial 15-minute overtime period, play will resume following a two-minute intermission, and teams will continue playing until a winner is determined.
NFL expands the Rooney Rule
In March, the NFL announced changes to the Rooney Rule which now requires all teams to interview at least two women and/or persons of color when filling prominent positions in an organization.
All teams must also have at least one woman or person of color on staff as an offensive assistant, which is designed to expand the head coaching pipeline in a league in which head coaches now predominantly come from an offensive background.
The changes announced earlier this year follow updates made to the Rooney Rule last October that ask teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for all general manager or executive of football operations positions and all offensive, defensive and special teams coordinator positions.
Practice squads grow
NFL teams were permitted to carry 12 players on their practice squads in 2020 and 2021, but that number is increasing to 16 players in 2022. A team is now allowed to elevate a player from the practice squad to the active roster three times per season before needing to place a player on waivers, which should help teams such as the 49ers that often look to fill the back-end of their depth charts with players who have been practicing in their system throughout the regular season.
Of the 16 players on the practice squad, a maximum of six can be veterans with any number of years of experience in the NFL.
Injured reserve rules change
In each of the last two years, a player could be placed on the injured reserve list and had to remain inactive for three weeks before returning to the active roster. Entering 2022, the NFL has tightened restrictions on injured reserve lists, as players must spend a minimum of four weeks on the IR while teams are also limited in the number of players they can activate from IR over the course of a season.
Last year, the number of players allowed to return after spending their three weeks on IR was unlimited. Going forward, teams will be permitted to reactivate only eight from the list.
Originally published at Kerry Crowley