Al Michaels out of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage
 

https://nypost.com/2023/12/12/sports...pasteboard_app

Al Michaels out of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage in move he wasn’t expecting


By Andrew Marchand
Published Dec. 12, 2023, 9:58 a.m. ET

The legendary Al Michaels is out of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage, The Post has learned.

Michaels called last year’s incredible Jaguars comeback win over the Chargers, but he and analyst Tony Dungy were widely panned for a perceived lack of enthusiasm.

Michaels, 79, maybe the greatest NFL TV play-by-player of all-time, had a storied run at ABC and NBC calling prime-time football before moving to “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon Prime Video last season.

NBC has three playoff games next month. The network’s No. 1 team, “Sunday Night Football’s” Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth, will handle two of them, including one that will be exclusive just to the network’s streaming service, Peacock.

When NBC has two games on the first weekend of the playoffs, its No. 1 college team, Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, along with sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen, will be on the call.

NBC Sports VP Greg Hughes confirmed the assignments to The Post. Michaels did not return messages.

The move continues a dramatic rise for the 27-year-old Eagle, who will also call the Super Bowl as the play-by-player on Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob telecast in February.

Michaels’ swap-out by NBC has been in the works for awhile, though Michaels was apparently caught off guard.

During an early November interview with The Post, Michaels said he believed that he was still going to call the game on NBC, but did not know whom he would be working with.

When informed by The Post about it being in limbo, Michaels sounded unaware of the possibility.

“It’s in my deal,” Michaels said. “Where are you hearing that from? That’s part of my deal. Are you hearing something that I’m not hearing?”

There has long been tension between Michaels and top NBC executives, though they have done their best to hide it from public view, even giving Michaels an emeritus title when he was replaced. There was a failure to truly define what the emeritus role really meant, except for calling the playoff game.

NBC decided to move on from Michaels, even though he longed to stay at the top perch on “Sunday Night Football.” NBC had long promised Tirico the lead role, and kept true to its word even after Michaels went out with a tremendous performance for NBC in the Super Bowl in February 2022.

During the broadcast shuffle, Michaels had interest in replacing Joe Buck when he left for Fox. Michaels was also ESPN/ABC’s second choice if it failed to land Buck for “Monday Night Football.”

Michaels landed at Amazon Prime Video, where he has called “Thursday Night Football” for the streaming service.

With Michaels not returning for the playoff game, it ends what is arguably the most storied NFL network broadcast play-by-play career of all-time. Michaels and Pat Summerall are tied with 11 Super Bowls called on television.'

Michaels still has one more year on his Amazon deal and told The Post in November he plans on returning.

Meanwhile, NBC is very high on Eagle and Blackledge following their first season calling the Big Ten. The duo will have NBC’s call of the Steelers and Bengals on Dec. 23. That day, Tirico and Collinsworth will be in the booth for the Bills and the Chargers that is exclusively on Peacock.

One of the best ever.

Do you believe in miracles? Todd ****ing blackledge has a job!

Tirico and Collinsworth aren't bad but Eagle and Blackledge suck.
Gonna miss Michaels TBH.

Michaels is a Chargers fan. Too many falls from Lover's Leap

Ditching Al Michaels for Mike Tirico is just incomprehensible

I remember Al Michaels was the voice of a video game when I was a kid

Legendary voice

Does this have anything to do with him dissing the guy's sandwich on Thanksgiving?

If there is any justice in the world. He seems like a blowhard anyway.
Time for new blood

This is a shame because I hate having to watch MNF on mute now

Some of that article might explain why Michaels seems to be mailing it in on Amazon this season

Or maybe its just the games

good

he's so uninterested he's painful to listen to

And yet, Collinsworthless is still around...

He's been lifeless the last 2 seasons. The whole Amazon broadcast is as well. They toned down crowd noise too. I excusable.

Probably a good move.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Al Michels has show ZERO enthusiasm calling this game. <br><br>“ETN, ETN takes it to the end zone”<br> <a href="https://t.co/FRb9O6cJQ9">pic.twitter.com/FRb9O6cJQ9</a></p>&mdash; MLFootball (@_MLFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/_MLFootball/status/1715172626140741846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Wait, what? A playoff game exclusively on Peacock???

No call is worse than Joe Buck's call when Damien Williams ran the ball into the endzone to seal our Superbowl win against the 49ers.

"and he will roll into the endzone for the touchdown... no flags"

****ing shit call.

Alternative theory: He and Herb have been incredibly vocal about flags this year...they regularly lament flags slowing the game down.

Al is a legend, but he's lost his fastball.

Al may have been a little subdued, but Dungy was absolutely horrible last year.

Ian Eagle is great. He called some of the Royals playoff games in our big run I believe (unless I'm mixing him up with someone else).

I noticed that too. What is this? Is the NFL trying yet again to keep people from watching their games?

Noah is his son.

Ah

Flags fly!!!

It will be one of the Wild Card games on Saturday, January 13th.

Yet another reason why the Chiefs need to get the #1 seed and avoid playing on Super Wild Card Weekend.

Damn, first Billichick and now Michaels. Who's next? Nick Saban?

He has had absolute shit for games to call this year.

That was terrible. Pretty sure that call alone convinced me he was either a Niners fan, or he had a large sum of money on the Niners to win the game.

Denny Matthews has been lifeless for decades. Still has a job

Well, someone has to be.

If it's the Chiefs... will one of the local stations pick it up like Thursday night? I don't really care one way or another unless it's KC.

I'm going to be dropping streaming channels this year, not adding them.

Sucks in Topeka because the locals aren't allowed to do that.

He needs to retire.

I love Al. I also love Collinsworth, Buck and Aikman. Romo and Nantz are awesome. Harlan is probably the best. Greg Olsen is good.

Idk. Not sure why everyone despises commentators so much.

I suppose I do dislike commentators who are idiots. Like, they just don’t understand the rules or what is literally happening right in front of their eyes.

Charles Davis and Dan Fouts are the biggest culprits of this, IMO.

Herbstreit kinda sucks too. It’s clear that he enjoys college faaaaaaarrr more than the pros.

He's a cranky old fart who's tired of playing nice with a bunch of bullshit.

I'm also a cranky old fart who's tired of playing nice with a bunch of bullshit, so I have no problem with him.

"Do you believe in Miracles?"

I didn't read that article, as there were way too many words about a person I barely care about in it, but Michaels is either experiencing cognitive decline, or more than likely just showing up to work already drunk.

Al can be great again, he just needs a younger more dynamic guy to play off of... he'll be right back on the air with CBS or whoever else

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Charles Davis is your man! He can introduce the CD's Chalk Talk segments.

Only thing Charles Davis is good for is AIDS Talk

I don't need more crowd noise.

Good grief.

I don't know. I can understand wanting a little excitement, but Ian Eagle doesn't need to salivate over every 6 yard carry by a RB.

I'd rather go listen to a woodchipper

They need to bring Gus Johnson back. He's so fun to listen to. Only regret about the Mahomes era is he hasn't called a game for him yet.

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