Football is coming, and with it will bring more changes to Fox’s Thursday Night Football. The network took the broadcast reigns for the first NFL games of the week and has done some tinkering to the pregame show before the 2019 season.
Gonzalez, who will enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this month, joined Fox two seasons ago and will be added to the Thursday Night pregame show. According to The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, the former tight end will get a promotion from his current role, which was helping out on NFL Kickoff and hopping in on the later hours of the NFL on Fox pregame show.
The report gives us a good idea of what Fox’s broadcast will look like on Sundays and now Thursdays, as Marchand reported that everyone already on the broadcast will remain put on Sundays, Gonzalez included. But his addition on Thursday night indicates that Fox has big plans for the retired 43-year-old NFL player.
While Michael Strahan will be back as the host on Thursdays on Fox, Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long will split the 11 weeks during the year, according to sources.
Last season, they were full-timers on Thursdays to go along with their NFL Sunday gigs.
Last year’s pregame show was a bit more untraditional, but this year the program is expected to return to the Big Desk format that Fox has on Sunday mornings with its pregame shows.
On Sundays, Gonzalez will continue on “NFL Kickoff,” which is Fox’s pre-pregame program. After its premiere show at noon, “Fox NFL Sunday,” Jimmy Johnson leaves the Hollywood studios and jets home to Miami, which opens the chair for Gonzalez the rest of the day.
It is clear that Fox sees Gonzalez as a staple for the future with Strahan and Long on Fox NFL Sunday.
According to the report, Gonzalez and Strahan will anchor the Thursday Night pregame shows, while Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will continue to announce the games on Thursday nights.
