For the last fifteen years on Sundays at approximately 8:15 p.m. EST, NBC has televised Sunday Night Football. This season has brought many thrilling moments and exciting finishes and behind the mic through it all has been the legendary Al Michaels.
On Tuesday afternoon, Al Michaels joined Roggin and Rodney on AM 570 LA Sports to talk about his future broadcasting NFL games. His contract with NBC Sports expires following this season.
Coming off of a year where fan capacity was strictly limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic that ended in Tom Brady winning his seventh Super Bowl championship, and first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Michaels realizes the high amount of dramatic finishes that have occurred around the league during this season in particular.
“It’s crazy in the sense that there have been so many games that did not turn out [how] we thought they would,” said Michaels. “It just speaks to what the NFL is – obviously, it’s a parody-driven league, [and] it’s set up that way because [of] the way the draft is done, the salary cap and all the rest.”
Michaels has a nascent love for sports largely due to his father taking him to Ebbets Field at 6 years old while growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. His experience in watching a wide array of professional sports has allowed him to understand the ebbs and flows of the game, or as he describes it, acting as a songwriter who is able to provide the right lyrics that align with the melody of the game itself.
While there has been recent speculation that this year’s Super Bowl on NBC could be his last broadcast for the network, or even altogether, Michaels could be heading to Amazon’s new Thursday Night Football broadcasts starting next season. Wherever he ends up though, Michaels just hopes to remain behind the microphone next season so long as his health remains optimal.
“My contract is up, but we’re still talking about the future and a couple of other things are out there. I, at this moment in time, hope to be doing games next year.”
After Fred Roggin asked Michaels to list his top five moments he has witnessed over his time broadcasting the National Football League, he and co-host Rodney Peete marveled at their guest’s encyclopedic knowledge and passion for the game.
“It feels like you remember those games that you called,” said Peete, who played in the NFL for fifteen seasons as a quarterback, “and so vividly. [The] details that you gave us [were] incredible.”
For Michaels, his ability to vividly recall moments off the top of his head, as he did during this interview, encapsulates why he hopes to remain on the call next season.
“This is why I love what I do, and I want to continue doing it because it’s exciting to me,” said Michaels. “I’m kind-of blessed with some sort of chip in my brain that enables me to kind-of see [the games] in my mind’s eye, and I can see all of those plays and remember how it felt.”