Tag: Al Michaels

Why Al Michaels isn’t calling NFL playoff games for NBC in 2024

Here’s the story behind that decision.

As you may recall, Al Michaels left NBC Sports for Amazon to call Thursday Night Football in 2022, but he still called an NFL playoff game for NBC thanks to his status as “broadcaster emeritus.”

But in 2024, you won’t find him on any of NBC’s broadcasts of the NFL playoffs. Why is that?

Let’s go back to December of 2023. The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported at the time that Michaels was out and complaints about lack of enthusiasm with Tony Dungy didn’t help. So instead, the top play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico will call two games and Noah Eagle will call the other contest.

There’s your answer.

NBC cuts Al Michaels out of NFL playoff coverage

NBC cuts Al Michaels out of NFL playoff coverage:

Al Michaels will not be on the call for any of NBC’s three NFL playoff games.

The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported Tuesday the network has decided not to use the great announcer this postseason.

Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will talk the viewers through two of the contests.

The third game will be assigned to NBC’s No. 1 college team, Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, along with sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen, who will be on the call.

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Twitter reacts to the Raiders’ 63-21 pulverizing of the Chargers

Twitter was full of takes as the Las Vegas Raiders drilled the Los Angeles Chargers 63-21 on Thursday Night Football.

Easton Stick versus Aidan O’Connell was going to be a dull enough matchup for Thursday Night Football. No one wanted to make it any worse, but somehow the Los Angeles Chargers did in their AFC West showdown with the Las Vegas Raiders.

The Raiders took out their frustrations from being shutout in Week 14 with 42 unanswered first half points en route to a 63-21 dismantling of Los Angeles.

O’Connell finished the night going 20-of-34 for 248 yards and four touchdowns. No one can say if the Raiders have their future signal caller, but he played the part in Week 15.

Twitter stuck around for the 60-minute beatdown. Here are some of the best tweets to emerge from the Raiders’ dismantling of the Chargers.

Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit perfectly summed up the Chargers’ horrific first half against the Raiders

The Chargers were NOT having a good time.

The Los Angeles Chargers were not having a great time on Thursday Night Football.

In an absolutely disastrous first half, the Chargers went down 28-0 to the very average Las Vegas Raiders by the middle of the second quarter.

On the play that set up Las Vegas for its fourth touchdown of the game, Raiders wide receiver DJ Turner stripped the ball away from Chargers cornerback Michael Davis deep in Los Angeles territory to position quarterback Aidan O’Connell for the score.

Game announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Al Michaels were aghast at how bad of a game this was turning out to be for Los Angeles, as they could only find words like “disaster” and “nightmare” to describe how things were going.

This was the kind of performance that summed up the state of Chargers football this season, as losing quarterback Justin Herbert for the year put Los Angeles in an even worse position than it was already in.

It didn’t help that the Chargers let up yet another touchdown later in the second quarter to make the score a startling 35-0.

After that, Michaels and Herbstreit thought the Chargers looked absolutely defeated because of how poorly things were going.

NFL fans couldn’t help but agree with Herbstreit’s and Michaels’ assessments of how this game was going before halftime.

NBC cuts Al Michaels out of NFL playoff coverage

Al Michaels is out of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage

Al Michaels will not be on the call for any of NBC’s three NFL playoff games.

The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported Tuesday the network has decided not to use the great announcer this postseason.

Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will talk the viewers through two of the contests.

The third game will be assigned to NBC’s No. 1 college team, Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, along with sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen, who will be on the call.

 

Al Michaels took a brutally accurate shot at the Bears’ historic QB failures while introducing Mitch Trubisky

The Chicago Bears don’t even have to play to catch some shade from Al Michaels.

Even though the Chicago Bears weren’t playing on Thursday Night Football, they still caught some heat from longtime NFL broadcaster Al Michaels.

While introducing starting Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky to the Amazon audience at home, Michaels referred to Trubisky’s ill-fated tenure with the Bears after being taken with a top pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Per NBC Sports Chicago’s Josh Schrock, Michaels joked that the Bears thought Trubisky would be the next Sid Luckman and that the team has been looking for the next franchise star since “the 17th century.”

Ouch! Michaels really didn’t hold back on this one.

It’s true that the Bears have been searching for a franchise quarterback for quite some time, with 2021 first-round pick Justin Fields still not fully entrenched in his job for the 2024 season and beyond.

It’s very possible the Bears will start all over again next spring by trading Fields and picking one of the top quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft, even if the team’s track record doesn’t suggest good things.

For now, the team will have Fields, the rough memories of Trubisky and Michaels throwing out some shade during a game that doesn’t even involve Chicago.

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Al Michaels summed up all Cowboys – Seahawks penalties with 1 funny line

Al Michaels summed it all up with one line.

There were a total of 19 (!) penalties called in Thursday night’s Dallas Cowboys win over the Seattle Seahawks in what was one of the more thrilling weekday primetime games we’ve seen this season.

But over 250 yards in penalties? That’s A LOT. Kind of sloppy when you think about it. And midway through the third quarter, Al Michaels had to say something about it on the air with Prime Video.

“We’re gonna take the rest of the night off and let Clete Blakeman call the game,” he remarked.

Boom, roasted! And that was just in the third quarter! Here’s the line from Michaels and some reaction:

Al Michaels casually roasted Lee Corso and an unfortunate die-hard Bears fan with one comment

Thanks for the laugh, Al Michaels.

Thursday night’s NFL game between the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers didn’t really feature much to talk about, as even Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit struggled to maintain interest in the sluggish contest.

While they welcomed Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce into the booth, Michaels caught a glimpse of a Bears fan with a big bear hat and bear claws on in the Soldier Field crowd.

Michaels found the perfect quip while the Bears fan was on the screen, saying that it was nice that ESPN College GameDay staple Lee Corso was in attendance for the game, which got a laugh from Herbstreit and Kelce.

Look, the fact that they found things to talk about during this game was very impressive. We’ll take what we can get!

The Bears and the Panthers didn’t provide much entertainment, but a nice little chuckle from Michaels certainly helped keep us engaged, if only for a brief moment in time.

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Al Michaels seemed overjoyed that Jason Kelce’s TNF appearance temporarily saved him from Bears-Panthers

Al Michaels owes Jason Kelce a fruit basket for helping him ignore TNF.

We knew the Chicago Bears’ matchup with the Carolina Panthers on Thursday Night Football would be an atrocious rock fight. Even with some weird draft incentives for the Bears, no rational football-loving mind saw this game on paper and thought it was a burgeoning classic.

Apparently, the folks who work and produce TNF thought the same thing! So they prepared accordingly. Instead of keeping full attention on a game featuring Tyson Bagent and Bryce Young — a disappointing No. 1 overall pick — the broadcast brought in Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce into the booth.

Why, you might ask?

Well, for no discernible reason other than that Kelce is a magnetic personality, and this was one of the obvious worst TNF games on paper all year. No one, not even the announcers, really wanted to watch this matchup closely. The gambit with Kelce — easily more interesting by himself than two of the NFL’s worst teams on the field — clearly worked with an overjoyed Al Michaels. Any criticism of the announcer lacking enthusiasm seemingly faded the moment he got to talk to Kelce:

Who could possibly blame Michaels for perking up once Kelce sat next to him? He seems like such a fun guy with a lot of energy. Now imagine talking to Kelce instead of devoting your energy to a horrid football game. It’d be a no-brainer every time.

Al Michaels responded to the criticism over his unenthusiastic performance as TNF announcer

The energy hasn’t been there for Michaels this season.

When it comes to legendary sports broadcasters, Al Michaels deserves to be among the best. He’s called some of the biggest moments in American sports during a career that spans decades. But at 78 years old, the drop-off for Michaels has been noticeable.

He’s somewhat aware of it too.

Since leaving NBC’s Sunday Night Football booth to join Prime’s Thursday Night Football, Michaels has seemingly coasted through games with a concerning lack of enthusiasm. He’s not making major mistakes, but he’s calling impressive and game-ending/changing plays as if they’re two-yard runs in the third quarter.

In an interview with the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, Michaels was asked about the criticism and wanted to know Marchand’s opinion on it. He told Michaels that he was similar to a pitcher who threw 97 mph earlier in his career and now has velocity in the mid-80s.

Michaels said:

“Your assessment is fair.”

Now, as for retirement questions, Michaels did say that he plans to continue as the TNF play-by-play announcer for next season. He has another year on his contract and makes around $1 million per game. Michaels added that he feels that he sounds the same as he always has:

“I don’t think I’m a lot different than I have been through the years,” Michaels said. “And if people you know want to say that, ‘Al doesn’t sound as excited.’ Hold on a second, folks. I’m doing the same game I’ve always done.”

But it’s difficult to deny something has changed when he’s calling plays like this:

The energy just isn’t there.