The legendary Al Michaels will, it seems, be home for the holidays - well, for the NFL Playoffs, anyway, as NBC has dumped the L.A.-area resident and all-time great broadcasting voice from its postseason coverage.
Michaels is 79, and has assembled one of the most stories careers in broadcasting. But the NFL TV play-by-play star has come under fire recently for seeming to have "lost it'' ... and there are also some indications that his harsh criticism of boring games assigned to his “Thursday Night Football” slot on Amazon Prime Video has cast him in a negative light with some powers-that-be.
Next month, NBC will broadcast three playoff games. ... and while the previous plan was for Michaels to cross the stream to the Peacock Network, now - as the New York Post was first to report - NBC's No. 1 team of Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth from “Sunday Night Football,” will handle two of the games.
And behind them? NBC's No. 1 college team, Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, will be on the additional call.
Michaels "was apparently caught off guard'' by the dumping, according to The Post.
When informed by The Post about the move, 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?”
Michaels, according to the paper, has one year left on his Amazon deal and is not planning to retire in advance of that.
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