John Lynch came out of nowhere, at least regarding a personnel background, to become the 49ers’ general manager in 2017. The Hall of Fame safety had spent most of the previous decade as a FOX analyst. Amid a run of NFL broadcast-booth changes this offseason, Amazon presented Lynch a lucrative offer to return to the booth.
The sixth-year San Francisco GM turned down Amazon’s offer — one reportedly worth far more than his GM salary — to stay with the 49ers. He decided to do so shortly after the team’s season-ending loss to the Rams.
“Kyle [Shanahan] asked me to address the team, and that’s when the clarity really came to me because I didn’t know,” Lynch said, via NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, regarding how he would proceed with Amazon. “I wasn’t going to address it [the job offer] until after the season.
“I looked at myself and said, ‘How do I sit up here and address these guys and talk about having the fortitude to fight through the pain of losing a game like this and then turn around and bolt on them?’ I couldn’t do it. I knew right then what I was going to do. I’m happy to be a part of the Niners.”
During a historically unstable period in which the 49ers went through four head coaches in four years, Shanahan took the reins in 2017. Lynch came in soon after. Both received six-year contracts. The 49ers showed patience in the duo, which struggled during a two-year stretch largely spent without a viable starting quarterback, and it paid off when the 2019 team made a surprise Super Bowl LIV run. Shanahan and Lynch signed extensions in 2020, and the 2021 season put the team back on track.
Shanahan and 49ers CEO Jed York advised Lynch to listen to Amazon’s offer. The 50-year-old exec spent nine seasons in the booth, working with FOX from 2008-16. Three years remain on Lynch’s 49ers extension, with this year — which is expected to feature a Jimmy Garoppolo trade and Trey Lance‘s ascension — being a key point on the Shanahan-Lynch regime’s timeline.
“It’s silly. It’s stupid. It really is,” Lynch said. “When Amazon came and started talking to me, I said, ‘You want to pay me what? Are you serious? Are you sure?‘”
The winning coach from that NFC title game, Sean McVay, also had to fend off network interest during an offseason that has seen FOX, NBC and ESPN’s top broadcast teams broken up. Amazon played a role in this, with longtime NBC play-by-play man Al Michaels signing on with the league’s newest broadcast partner. Amazon, which has Kirk Herbstreit set to work with Michaels, will air Thursday-night games this season. Given the money being thrown around to top-tier announcers following Tony Romo‘s CBS extension, active coaches, execs and players will likely continue to be linked to TV gigs.
After this trey lance car wreck we’re all about to watch th guys gonna be beggin Amazon for a job
Right!? I think Lance will be fine but there’s no certainty.
Glad to see there are some people in the world that have priorities over money.
Easier to not prioritize money when you’ve already made tens of millions.
It’s usually those kinds of people that prioritize it more.
You work hard, you earn it and you get paid for it, pure and simple. Maybe Amazon is just thinking outside the box paying more. It’s a very competitive job market…
I vaguely kinda get why they paid Romo, so many like him and everyone else is terrible.
I kinda get why Fox paid Brady, he’s a name, a draw, etc. but more important he becomes a face of the network and I’d bet a big part of his deal is schmoozing with sponsors behind the scenes, being at network upfronts, etc.
But no one cares about any other announcer and it doesn’t add even one viewer who wasn’t already going to watch.
None of these announcers add viewers. It’s ridiculous how much they get paid but if a network is dumb enough to do it, I can’t blame them for taking the money.
Bad ones lose viewers tho
Very correct Midrange. I would mute ESPN games. Steve Levy was horrible.
I’m actually glad ESPN tossed STUPID money at Buck and Aikman. I’ll usually be watching hockey on Monday nights.
I really like Kevin Burkhardt (not enough to tune in for him, of course) but I’ll no longer avoid the afternoon game on Fox…except for the endless NFC East matchups.
Midrange: I agree and was going to come and say that. ESPN lost me the last couple seasons. Their football announcers are horrible.
I liked Manning cast and thought it was funny but I hated that I couldn’t he r the game at all. It was like listening to the game auto that they are watching on their TV. It was weird. If it the game sound like regular ESPN football and then the hijinks of Manning cast. It would be watchable.
A network would get more value for it’s investment by hiring someone like Kevin Pollack who can do impressions. One week it would be Woody Allen calling the game, the next it could be William Shatner or Christopher Lloyd. I think that approach might attract more viewers.