In a bid to get fans pumped for a season of streaming NFL games on Thursday nights, Amazon has turned to a couple of the league’s star quarterbacks to toss a new “Prime football.”
The resulting videos — like the allegedly redesigned football — are a bit of a stretch.
Rams QB Matthew Stafford is shown in a video on Instagram throwing the ball 100 yards from one end zone to the other.
“This new Amazon Prime ball can really fly,” Stafford says as he lets loose.
Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson also gets in on the act in a video he tweeted. “This ball is crazy,” says the former Seahawk as he throws a bullet at a tackling dummy.
In its own tweet from its NFL on Prime Video account, Amazon says “the game has changed” and that the “inflatable football has been reinvented.” The video shows the Prime football being stretched into a more aerodynamic shape.
But the prospect of a different ball being used only on Thursday nights, and skewing stats in comparison to Sunday and Monday balls, doesn’t really fly.
Amazon’s exclusive streaming rights for “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video will span 11 seasons and feature veteran broadcasters Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit in the broadcast booth. The first game kicks off on Sept. 15.
Update, Sept. 1: A new tweet from Amazon on Thursday makes it clear to football fans that the balls are fake.
