Although he is primarily working as the play-by-play announcer of Amazon Prime Video’s presentation of Thursday Night Football, Al Michaels has maintained an emeritus role with NBC Sports. Michaels had been the voice of Sunday Night Football on NBC for 15 seasons and was able to call a playoff game each year for the network.
Yet he will not be on the call this season after criticism abound following his performance with Tony Dungy on a Wild Card round game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers this past January. When reached for comment by the New York Post, which broke the news on Tuesday, Michaels seemed unaware and stated that calling a playoff game is part of his contract.
Nonetheless, the network has decided to grant Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge a chance to call a playoff game, announcers who are part of the network’s lead B1G Saturday Night commentary team. The network recently completed its first year broadcasting regular-season Big Ten Conference games as part of a seven-year media rights deal and introduced the new lead broadcast team to listeners. The other playoff games will be called by the lead broadcast team on Sunday Night Football games consisting of play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico and analyst Cris Collinsworth. The lineups were confirmed by NBC Sports according to the New York Post report.
“He’s a legend and he should be able to go out on his terms, but I do understand this decision,” morning co-host David Haugh said Wednesday on 670 The Score. “I don’t think it was executed gracefully, and that’s a shame because anybody who has accomplished what Al Michaels has accomplished – he deserves to go out on his terms. But I’m not going to protest this decision because I do kind of like both booths and outside of Collinsworth, I don’t have a big issue with any of the people that NBC will put out there for the playoffs.”
Executive producer Dustin Rhoades forgot that NBC Sports had a lead football broadcasting booth outside of the Notre Dame games, which had broadcasts taken over by Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett this past season. Having Eagle and Blackledge call an NFL playoff game, he affirmed, was similar to criticism he had of Amazon Prime Video and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, conveying that they are being rushed into doing NFL games.
“This is going to percolate; this is not just going to just go away,” Rhoades said. “Is it because Al demands a steak at halftime and then after the game, and Ian Eagle’s son is willing to eat whatever the stadium provides on the buffet?”
Morning program co-host Mike Mulligan began reciting lyrics to Paul Simon’s hit single, “You Can Call Me Al,” expressing that he wants Al Michaels to remain on the call for a playoff game. Emphasizing that it is about hellos and goodbyes, Mulligan knows that Michaels heard the conversation surrounding the call of the game last year. Even though he stated that he is not going to argue that it was not a great call last year, he still wants to hear Michaels on the playoff game because of his association with these contests.
“I think that that guy has had such a great career and done so many great things in the business, it peeves me to think that he’s talking to the New York Post and they’re breaking news to him and he’s like, ‘Well, wait a minute,’” Mulligan said. “That’s awful, so they shouldn’t do a make-right.”
