How to watch the Arizona Cardinals-New Orleans Saints game on Prime Video Thursday, or not
How to watch the Arizona Cardinals-New Orleans Saints game Thursday at State Farm Stadium?
On Prime Video, if you want to.
That’s a big if, and not just because it's a “battle” — heh — between two 2-4 teams, and video of the Cardinals’ offense could be used as a sleep aid if you run out of warm milk.
The point is, just for this game, you don’t have to watch on Prime Video Thursday if you live in the Phoenix or New Orleans market thanks to NFL rules that allow the teams’ local markets to broadcast the game.
Everyone else everywhere else, though, has to stream “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video (as will Cardinals and Saints fans the rest of the season). Which means you must be an Amazon Prime subscriber to get it.
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Prime Video will stream the game at 5 p.m. on Thursday and Fox 10 will broadcast the game as well.
For some people, a streaming-only broadcast has been an issue. You see it on Twitter every Thursday night — I don’t have Prime Video, where else is this game being shown?
Nowhere.
This is the first season Prime Video has had exclusive rights to the game, and its contract runs through 2033, so you might as well get used to it.
If you do spring for Prime Video, you get a high quality broadcast that looks similar to what you'd see on Fox, CBS and NBC for every other game. (And don’t forget the free shipping!)
Plus, you get Al Michaels.
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He is generally regarded as the greatest play-by-play announcer in history — as well as an Arizona State University graduate and the guy who said, “DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? YES!!” as the U.S. hockey team shocked Russia in the 1980 Olympics.
NBC didn’t re-sign Michaels after his contract expired after last season, so he jumped to Prime Video from NBC, where he paired with Cris Collinsworth for years on “Sunday Night Football,” which is routinely the highest-rated show on broadcast TV.
It was a huge hire for the streaming service, an instant jolt of credibility. Kirk Herbstreit signed on as the analyst, a curious move as he is also the lead analyst for college football on ESPN and ABC. But he’s good — as steady as Collinsworth, though, especially early on, he seemed a little awed to be sitting next to Michaels.
The service’s pregame and postgame shows are on par with those on ESPN (the broadcast networks are better at pregame).
Honestly, from a broadcast booth standpoint, it’s like watching any other NFL game, assuming you have Amazon Prime.
It’s on the field where the games have run into trouble.
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Two weeks ago, the Indianapolis Colts beat the Denver Broncos 12-9. It was, to judge from sports-talk radio and social media, the worst game anyone could remember in a long time.
Then came last week. The Thursday night game featured two of the great franchises in league history, the Washington Commanders and the Chicago Bears. At least they used to be great. They both stink now, and the game reflected that with a 12-7 Washington win that Michaels and Herbstreit actually apologized for.
“I promise that we will break this rhythm we’ve developed the last couple of weeks,” Herbstreit said as the game droned on.
Careful, buddy. The Cardinals and Saints might not break that spell. The Cardinals, last year were a scoring machine (at least for half the season), but have sputtered along this year, seemingly lacking in confidence and definitely lacking DeAndre Hopkins.
Their great receiver will return for the Thursday game after serving a six-game suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, a receiver who has played well in Hopkins’ absence, was injured Sunday in the Cardinals’ lackluster 19-9 loss to Seattle.
So how to watch? How about why to watch?
On the one hand, it’s football. On the other, there’s a good chance it will be bad football. Which is better than no football. But sometimes not by much.
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How to watch Arizona Cardinals-New Orleans Saints
Pregame show streams at 4 p.m. Arizona time on Prime Video.
Game streams at 5 p.m. on Prime Video; Fox 10 will also broadcast the game.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Amazon Prime will stream 'Thursday Night Football' Cardinals vs Saints
