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Report: Al Michaels Won’t Be Putting Us to Sleep During 2024 Playoffs
Published:
Andrew Marchand at The New York Post:
The legendary Al Michaels is out on NBC’s NFL playoff coverage, The Post has learned.
Michaels called last year’s incredible Jaguars comeback win over the Chargers, but he and analyst Tony Dungy were widely panned for a perceived lack of enthusiasm.
Michaels, 79, maybe the greatest NFL TV play-by-player of all time, had a storied run at ABC and NBC calling prime-time football before moving to “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon Prime Video last season.
Marchand notes that Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will handle two of NBC’s three playoff games.
This is the right move, and look, no disrespect to Al Michaels’ incredible career, but the guy has been going through the motions for years now. Mistakes happen, no big deal. It’s the lack of fervor that’s the real issue. The Jags/Chargers playoff game was awesome, but Michaels made it sound like he was doing play-by-play of a middle school teacher microwaving her leftovers in the break room. And his call of Super Bowl 52 was insipid. Lacking vigor. That was a wonderful game not just for Eagles fans, but for neutrals as well, and his calls of the Philly Special and the final play of the game in particular amounted to maybe a 4 out of 10 on the excitement meter. Kevin Harlan, or anybody else, really, would have been appropriately going ape shit calling that game. If you’re not into it, then it’s someone else’s turn.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com