NBC and Amazon Prime Video announcer Al Michaels has taken criticism for his — as well as Tony Dungy’s — performance during the Super Wild Card Weekend game that saw the Jacksonville Jaguars defeat the Los Angeles Chargers after trailing 27-0.
Critics have called the performance by Michaels and Dungy “low energy” and “disinterested“, but Michaels told Andrew Marchand of The New York Post that he was more than satisfied with his performance Saturday.
“Very happy. Had never worked with Tony and it felt extremely comfortable,” Michaels said. “Was like doing two different games. First half/second half. Tons of fascinating strategy. Nothing like postseason in any sport. Must have gotten a hundred texts from folks who were very happy to see me back on NBC. Read some comments that we didn’t sound excited enough. Internet compost! You know me as well as anyone — no screaming, no yelling, no hollering. It’s TELEVISION! Ellipses and captions are [sufficient] when pictures tell the story. I’m not doing a game for over-the-top YouTube hits.”
Michaels continued by telling Marchand “a lot of folks who understand this industry are annoyed with the over-the-top yelling that makes a game sound like an offshoot of talk radio. I’m in that corner, but there are others who obviously think otherwise.”
It is the second consecutive season that NBC’s Saturday playoff broadcast has come under fire. In 2022, many were critical of the performance of former quarterback Drew Brees. NBC subsequently released Brees from his contract with the network, saying it wouldn’t block him from having talks with other broadcasters.
