The legendary Al Michaels continues to call the NFL’s biggest games, four decades after making his debut in the Monday Night Football. It is now in its fifth year Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, the 81-year-old broadcast icon understands that, at some point, it will come to an end.
Appearing in Wednesday’s edition of The Dan Patrick ShowMichaels addressed the question of when he’ll know it’s time.
“Well, or the people I work for will tell me, or I will know it myselfa combination,” Michaels said, via Sam Neumann’s Terrible announcement. “Let’s put it this way. The people at Amazon and Prime have been fantastic. Fantastic to me.”
After its initial three-year deal, Prime Video has extended the deal by one year, twice. If they don’t do it again, Michaels will be fine with that.
“If they come to me and say, ‘You know, it’s time for us to move on.’ . . . ‘You guys have been fantastic. You have been excellent. I’ve been doing the NFL for 41 years, which is half my life. I love him. But you know what? At a certain time, it’s time. And if they think it’s time, great. And if I feel it’s time, I’ll know. And I’ll say, ‘You know what? Thanks for the memories.”
We are the ones to thank. As we’ve said before, many won’t appreciate how much of an impact he has had on our sports-watching lives until he’s gone. And while there are plenty of very competent voices out there, Michaels is one of the best to ever do it—perhaps the best of all play-by-play announcers.
He was able to land in a high-profile spot after his tenure at NBC ended before he probably wanted it to. We’ve been able to hear him call games for another four years, thanks to Prime Video hiring him.
So either he’s going to leave or he’s going to get a push. Either way, Michaels’ long and illustrious journey means far more than however the road ends. For me and many others, it won’t be the same to go through a football season without hearing him call a play every week.
