Tag: Al Michaels

ESPN wants to trade for NBC’s Al Michaels to pair with Peyton Manning on MNF

NFL free agency gets going less than two weeks from now, and, according to one report, the TV networks are ramping up for some moves of their own.

NFL free agency gets going less than two weeks from now, and, according to one report, the TV networks are ramping up for some moves of their own.

Sports fans had plenty of media trade proposals after Al Michaels-ESPN report

Funny stuff.

Could a media trade be in the mix?

According to a New York Post report, ESPN is going to attempt to trade with NBC Sports for Al Michaels, the Sunday Night Football broadcaster who is still under contract who was also once traded by the Worldwide Leader for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The hope is to use him and convince Peyton Manning to join the booth to create a pairing that won’t be the subject of a lot of Twitter ridicule every Monday night.

While it probably doesn’t mean a deal has been offered yet, sports fans floated some ideas and jokes about what an ESPN and NBC trade would look like:

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Report: ESPN wants to team Al Michaels with Peyton Manning on Monday Night Football

Could ESPN be attempting to pair Al Michaels and Peyton Manning in the Monday Night Football booth?

The shockers continue to come out of the broadcast booth as networks look to build their teams for 2020. First, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post broke the massive contract CBS gave to Tony Romo. Now, he has news ESPN wants to team Al Michaels with Peyton Manning on Monday Night Football.

If this miracle could be pulled off, it would end the oft-criticized tenure of Joe Tessitore on play-by-play and Booger McFarland, who went from a contraption on the sidelines to the booth after Jason Witten returned to the Dallas Cowboys following a disastrous 2018 season.

The one problem would be Michaels is under contract to NBC, which a spokesman was quick to mention when asked about the report.

“Al is under contract for the foreseeable future,” NBC spokesman Greg Hughes said.

Another issue per the Post is the tag-team might only happen if Michaels and Manning come as a package.

NBC has already hired Mike Tirico as Michaels’ replacement with the exact timing of the transition not entirely clear. Tirico is supposed to call more games soon, though. The end of Michaels’ contract coincides with the Super Bowl in Los Angeles in early 2022.

Tirico is expected to take over for Michaels full-time after the LA Super Bowl at the latest, but could be adding more games as early as this season.

In 2022, Michaels could retire, but he has shown no real inclination to do that and, in reality, the one-game-per-week NFL season only extends from August through early February. Ultimately, Michaels may not want to be dealt from NBC, as its Sunday games are the top-rated program on TV, a Super Bowl is on the horizon and he has been with this crew for the past 14 seasons.

Oh, and the Post adds Michaels has been part of a network trade in his storied career.

There is precedent for a trade. In 2006, Michaels was set to continue on MNF as it transferred from ABC to ESPN, having agreed to a new deal to remain on the broadcast.

After Michaels’ MNF partner, John Madden, left for NBC, Michaels asked out of his signed contract. ESPN obliged, but it received Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in return.

Oswald was the precursor to the creation of Mickey Mouse. The rights to Oswald, though, were owned by NBC’s parent company then, Universal. It had been important to the Disney family to regain Oswald.

 

 

 

A reminder that Al Michaels was once traded for the rights to a cartoon character

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit went over in the deal.

An intriguing report from the New York Post dropped on Thursday: ESPN “plans to attempt to acquire Al Michaels from NBC Sports.”

That presumably means the Worldwide Leader — which attempted to woo Tony Romo — hasn’t made an offer for the legendary play-by-play man who currently calls Sunday Night Football with Cris Collinsworth. And the “dream booth,” the Post’s Andrew Marchand adds, would be Michaels with Peyton Manning (I’d throw Eli Manning in with those two).

It seems like a bit of a pipe dream since Michaels has two years left on his deal with NBC.

The fun fact about all of this is … Michaels has been traded by ESPN before and it’s a great story.

Former ESPN president George Bodenheimer wrote about it in a book excerpt published in ESPN the Magazine back in 2015: when the network acquired Monday Night Football, John Madden left for SNF and Michaels wanted out of his ABC contract to join him.

So what did Disney — which owns ESPN — want in exchange for the broadcaster?

The first thing I did was call Disney CEO Bob Iger to give him the news. A couple of days later, Iger called me back.

“George,” he said, “I’d be willing to let Al Michaels go if you can get us the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC.”

After a slight pause, I responded, “Who or what is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?”

“Well, it goes back to the very beginning of Walt Disney’s career,” Iger explained. “Oswald is a revered figure at Disney, and I’d like to get him back.” …

It turns out that Oswald was a precursor to Mickey Mouse, designed personally by Walt Disney for Universal Pictures back in the 1920s — and Bob Iger knew it was important to the Disney family. Within a week, Ebersol had run the traps at NBC’s sister company, Universal, received approval, and the deal was worked out.

So … does that mean Oswald would be part of a hypothetical ESPN offer?

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5 takeaways from Bears’ primetime loss to the Chiefs

The Bears were embarrassed in all facets of the game by the Chiefs on Sunday night. But there are five things that really stand out.

The final game at Soldier Field for the 2019 season was a lot like the first back in September. The offense only put up three points, penalty flags rained all over the field and the fans showered the team with boos throughout the whole game as the Chicago Bears lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 26-3, dropping them to 7-8 with one final game to go in arguably the most disappointing season this decade.

The Chiefs were able to stifle the Bears offense and the defense was able to slow down quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but they couldn’t stop him. Here are my takeaways from Sunday night’s embarrassing loss.

1. The entire offense was abysmal

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Chicago Bears offense didn’t exactly set the field on fire. For the third time this season, the Bears were held to single digits on the scoreboard. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky missed throws, his receivers dropped his passes when they were on target and the playcalling was suspect once again.

It’s the 10th time this season the offense has failed to score a touchdown in the first half, as well as being held to under 300 yards for the entire game. Everyone is to blame for the lack of production, but one player still looms large…

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