Al Michaels and the 'Thursday Night Football' broadcast had rocky start

Thursday's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings was Amazon's first regular-season game of the 2023 season. The broadcast, however, had a few hiccups, all of which reminded viewers of the gripes they had during the inaugural season of "TNF" on Amazon.

At the center of those criticisms was the performance of legendary play-by-play man Al Michaels.

Michaels received plenty of flak last year for what fans perceived was his less-than-enthusiastic broadcasts of the games. Michaels addressed those comments weeks before the start of the season, saying that yelling through a broadcast is not his style or the style of other longtime broadcasters such as  Joe Buck, Jim Nantz and others. 

Not everybody is going to scream through games like Gus Johnson (and not everybody should). But there must be a happy medium between the two extremes of blowing a gasket on every play and making yourself the story (Johnson) and never raising the decibel level of your voice no matter the situation (modern-day Michaels).  

There were a couple of big plays in Thursday's game, especially in the second half when the Vikings were threatening a comeback, where the call just didn't seem to match the moment. Notable examples here included the 60-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Jordan Addison on a third-and-10 play, as well as a big touchdown to K.J. Osborn. 

Father time, however, still catches up to everybody, and broadcasters are no different than players in that regard.

Aside from the gripes about Michaels's excitement level, there were also a couple of bizarre glitches during the broadcast. There was a 15-second moment where a producer was clearly in Michaels' ear trying to tell him something, but nobody realized the mics were still live, which gave us this awkward moment.