Amazon signed a $50 million deal with the NFL to beat out Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for the rights to stream 11 Thursday Night Football games this season. That’s after Twitter had the NFL streaming rights last year for $10 million (or, five times less than the current Amazon deal). It makes plenty of sense for Amazon, an online shopping and streaming giant.  Just like it would make plenty of sense for Twitter (again), Google, Facebook, and YouTube. More and more people are cutting cable, and most of us spend a lot of time visiting these sites. We hang out on these sites.

However, one site that now claims to be interested in potential NFL streaming rights going forward doesn’t make nearly as much sense.

According to GeekWire, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said on Friday that the business social network is looking to have their own original content video programming, and are even interested in bidding on NFL streaming rights.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner made the remarks Friday at The Information’s Subscriber Summit in San Francisco, noting that shows such as reality TV hit “Shark Tank” is the style of programming that could resonate with LinkedIn users.

And while Weiner admitted to being “late” to video, he noted that the company would consider bidding on NFL video rights.

LinkedIn was sold to Microsoft for $26 billion last year and the company is likely looking to make some bold changes, but… *LinkedIn* streaming NFL games? A business, employment-oriented network where people share their résumés and do who even knows what else?  What the hell?

Yeah, a LinkedIn getting rights to NFL games seems pretty far-fetched.

Update: LinkedIn has contacted Awful Announcing, saying that the original report on this story at The Information “was inaccurate.”

The Information added the following update to their article:

“CORRECTION: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner didn’t say the company would be open to bidding for NFL rights. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that he had said that.”

Perhaps The Information took Jeff Weiner’s comments out of context or misheard the LinkedIn CEO, but at the same time, it seems unlikely that the comments were just created out of thin air either. Whatever the case, a weird story gets even weirder.

[GeekWire; The Information]

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor at The Comeback. He attended Colorado State University, wishes he was Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris, and idolizes Larry David. And loves pizza and dogs because obviously.

He can be followed on Twitter at @Matt2Clapp (also @TheBlogfines for Cubs/MLB tweets and @DaBearNecess for Bears/NFL tweets), and can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.