Having recently retired despite somehow never fulfilling his destiny of going 2-6 as a Bears backup, Ryan Fitzpatrick already has a new gig.
The longtime NFL quarterback will join Amazon’s NFL studio team, where he’ll do pregame and postgame work on Thursday Night Football this year alongside the already announced Richard Sherman, Tony Gonzalez, and Charissa Thompson.
Andrew Marchand first broke the news for the New York Post, talking to Fitzpatrick about the decision. The journeyman QB cited a desire to have his family in one location, as well as the work-life balance that the Thursday schedule will afford him.
“Amazon jumped out at me,” Fitzpatrick said. “In terms of it is something that’s fresh and new. It just made a lot of sense of what I was trying to get into.”
Plus, with Amazon being on Thursdays, Fitzpatrick said that will allow him to attend his kids’ football games and soccer tournaments.
“And, also, for me to be able to sit down with my kids and watch some of these games on Sunday,” Fitzpatrick said. “It is something I haven’t had a whole lot of time to do these last 17 years.”
This has been rumored for a while, with Fitzpatrick’s potential fit as a studio analyst making it an obvious outcome as soon as he announced his retirement at the beginning of June.
Will he be good? Maybe! Some of the best analysts tend to be players, coaches, and executives who just left the sport. That level of familiarity with teams around the league is a vital resource for interesting information, and it’s tempting to get excited about Fitzpatrick’s ability to break down a few key highlights from a quarterback’s perspective.
That said, it doesn’t always pan out; Jason Witten and Drew Brees were both just out of the sport, too, and while calling games is a different skillset than doing studio work, having a wealth of knowledge about the modern NFL doesn’t matter that much if you can’t translate it to viewers in an accessible, efficient way. Still, credit Amazon for building a pretty solid studio roster; if Marshawn Lynch joins too, it might actually be appointment viewing, which is rare for an NFL pregame show these days.
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.