Al Michaels took his fair share of criticism during the first season of Amazon Prime Video‘s “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts for displaying low energy in the booth alongside Kirk Herbstreit.
While it’s fair to contribute his perceived lack of energy due to a less than stellar slate of games, others weren’t as forgiving during the AFC Wild Card round matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers, in which the 78-year-old was on the call for NBC‘s broadcast. Many viewers said it sounded like Michaels would have fancied a nap over calling an NFL playoff game.
“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!” Michaels said of the criticism following the game. “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.”
Michaels fired back at his critics in an interview with Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal Monday.
“Look, sometimes I’ll take some (expletive),” Michaels said, via Awful Announcing. “People say, ‘He didn’t get excited enough.’ What do you want me to do? Scream, holler, yell the game? That ain’t me. That ain’t [Joe] Buck, that ain’t [Jim] Nantz. I can’t pay attention to anti–social media. We live in a country with 330 million people. And if eight people rip you on social media, I’m going, ‘Huh?’ Now anybody sitting in a basement has a platform. You can’t let things like that distress you. I’ve been doing this for so long. And I wouldn’t be here at this point still doing a major package if I was doing it the wrong way.”
2023 ‘Thursday Night Football’ slate looks promising for Al Michaels, Amazon Prime Video
Luckily for Michaels, the 2023 “Thursday Night Football” schedule looks promising. Michaels’ first broadcast of the season will come in Week 2 and see a showdown between the reigning NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles and the defending NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings. The San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins are just a few of the better teams across the league scheduled to play on “Thursday Night Football” this season.
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