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Broadcasting legend Al Michaels has wrapped up his first season calling the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” games for Amazon, with mixed results overall.
Michaels was his usual self, which is good. Color commentator Kirk Herbstreit was solid for a broadcaster whose background lay almost entirely in college football. The production values were huge outside of some healthy design glitches, which isn’t a surprise given Amazon’s investment.
But alas, the entire crew still had to film “Thursday Night Football,” a prime-time slate infamous for often splitting duds between underprepared and/or tired teams. The 2022 season did nothing to dispel that stigma, even with Michaels along for the ride.
Michaels addressed the issue of the quality of the TNF matches An interview with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch was published Thursdayand he didn’t sugarcoat his answer, especially when it came to the Denver Broncos vs. Indianapolis Colts:
“I think I’m at a point in my life and career where I’ve been watching sports since I was 6 years old and I feel what the crowd feels. The Denver-Indianapolis game (in Week 4) was a terrible game. No other way to describe it. No touchdowns. Actually, together at one point during the game, I said to (analyst) Kirk (Herbstreit), “Can this game be so bad that it’s really good?” He never heard it from his partner and said, “No!”
Michaels isn’t wrong, and he’s not alone in saying that. The game, with no touchdowns and four turnovers, was so unwatchable that a local Denver television station apologized for airing it (TNF games are still broadcast in local markets), with one commentator saying “It burns the retina.”
However, there were more bad games. Michaels called games with three first-half points, a lopsided blowout and performances so brutal they basically wiped out any optimism for a certain No. 2 overall pick. Some games were good, most were not.
According to Michaels, Amazon took it in stride, which you’d hope they did, since they’re paying $1 billion a year until 2033 for the privilege of streaming games:
Are you hearing anything from Amazon management about this?
“Nothing but support from the people at Amazon. I think they understood what this was. They made the most of it. I mean, you just can’t oversell something. You want me to sell you a 20-year-old Mazda? That’s what you’re asking me. I can’t sell you a used car. I’ve kind of gone down that road with games that have been bad in the past. But this game was awfully bad. What were you supposed to do with it And off I went.”
Maybe the “Thursday Night Football” games will finally improve next year. Amazon wouldn’t be the first rights holder to hope so.
In the meantime, at least Michaels gets to enjoy the playoffs NBC announced Wednesday he will return to call the Los Angeles Chargers-Jacksonville Jaguars wild-card game on Saturday.
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