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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Al Michaels, right, and Cris Collinsworth, second from left, broadcast from the field before an NFL football game between the Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Coltsy, Dec. 30, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo\/Mark Zaleski, File)<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s been a fantastic ride. I mean, it\u2019s unbelievable because it came out of nowhere back in 1986,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking 40 years, you don\u2019t think in those terms when you\u2019re 40 years old, but here we are. It\u2019s hard to believe, but I am blessed and thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Except for two years in 1974 and \u201875, when Michaels did afternoon games for NBC and CBS, Michaels\u2019 broadcasts have been mostly in prime time. He has also called 11 Super Bowls, tying him with Pat Summerall.<\/p>\n
Michaels was the play-by-play voice for ABC\u2019s \u201cMonday Night Football\u201d from 1986 until 2005. He was then traded to NBC when it launched \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d in 2006, and he called that package until 2021. This is his fourth season doing Prime Video\u2019s \u201cThursday Night Football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaels is the dean of NFL announcers in terms of games called. CBS\u2019 Kevin Harlan is the closest among active announcers, with 542, and would need at least 13 seasons to catch Michaels whenever he decides to retire.<\/p>\n
Michaels, who turned 81 in November, has shown no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all done so many big games at this point, but he truly gets excited when he has the opportunity to do a big game. And you can\u2019t say that for a lot of people in our business,\u201d said Fred Gaudelli, who was Michaels\u2019 producer for 23 seasons. \u201cAfter a certain amount of time, you lose that fire in your belly to really do it, and he\u2019s never lost that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk Herbstreit, who is in his fourth season as Michaels\u2019 partner, said he has grown to appreciate Michaels\u2019 ability to manage a broadcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always noticed that the bigger the moment, when you really feel urgency as a broadcaster, Al gets calmer and just waits for the right time to bring his voice to that crescendo,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve just been blown away by how he does his job, how organized and prepared he is, and how much he loves it. That\u2019s what really comes across to me. He is completely dialed in, loves the sport, and loves telling stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
The road to 40<\/p>\n
Michaels has worked with eight analysts. Cris Collinsworth worked with him the longest, at 13 seasons, while his seven years with John Madden rank among the best booth pairings.<\/p>\n
ABC Sports executive Dennis Swanson decided to bring Michaels aboard and move Frank Gifford to the analyst spot on \u201cMonday Night Football\u201d after firing O.J. Simpson and Joe Namath.<\/p>\n
Michaels had worked for ABC since 1976 and was best known for his baseball coverage and the U.S. hockey team\u2019s run to the gold medal in the 1980 Olympics.<\/p>\n
Gifford had been the main announcer from 1971 through \u201985, but Swanson wanted a more traditional play-by-play announcer at the helm of what was then the NFL\u2019s signature package.<\/p>\n
In 1987, \u201cMonday Night Football\u201d returned to a three-man booth when Dan Dierdorf joined from CBS. He, Michaels and Gifford worked together for 11 seasons, including three Super Bowls.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank and I got along great, but I think the feeling was from Swanson and the people at ABC is that Frank had been out of the game so long that they needed to or felt they needed to bring somebody more contemporary in,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cDan was an easy fit for us. I mean, a three-man booth is never easy, and it is rough around the analysts because they have to decide who\u2019s coming in at what point, but it was a natural flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dennis Miller experience<\/p>\n
The most unique booth was the 2000 and \u201901 seasons when Michaels was paired with Dan Fouts and comedian Dennis Miller. It also created an interesting dynamic for Michaels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so different than anything else I\u2019ve done in my entire 50-year career,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cIt was not easy because my biggest problem was Dennis had a lot of really good lines, but if I laughed too much, I would sound like a hyena. And if I didn\u2019t laugh, then people would say, Al hates him. Dan is trying to do regular analysis, and we had to adjust and adapt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look back very fondly on those years because they were different. I love to laugh, and working with Dennis Miller, you\u2019re going to laugh a lot. I did off the air as well as on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaels said Miller\u2019s greatest line came during the wild New York Jets comeback victory over the Miami Dolphins in 2000, when Jets offensive tackle Jumbo Elliott caught a TD pass to send it into overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first touchdown of his career, and Dennis chimes right in and goes, \u2018couldn\u2019t keep him down forever,\u2019 which was just a phenomenal line, phenomenal in that moment. So that was Dennis at his best. You\u2019re just capturing a moment, saying something pithy like that. It is funny,\u201d Michaels said.<\/p>\n
Back to the two-man booth<\/p>\n
Michaels has been part of a two-man booth since 2002, when Madden came over from Fox to join \u201cMonday Night Football.\u201d They worked together for seven seasons, including the move to NBC in 2006 when \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d started.<\/p>\n
Their first broadcast together was the 2002 Hall of Fame game. By the second commercial break, Michaels felt their partnership was already natural.<\/p>\n
Michaels\u2019 hardest season was 2005, the last on ABC before \u201cMonday Night Football\u201d moved to ESPN. Madden went to NBC, as did producer Gaudelli and director Drew Esocoff. After Super Bowl 40, Michaels was traded to NBC in exchange for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney\u2019s precursor to Mickey Mouse that had ended up in NBC\u2019s control.<\/p>\n
The Al-Manac<\/p>\n
The \u201cPrime Video\u201d broadcasts have subtly celebrated Michaels\u2019 long career with a segment called \u201cThe Al-Manac,\u201d where a key moment from a great game that Michaels has called is shown, and he gives his memories of the play or the game.<\/p>\n
Mark Teitelman, the lead game producer for \u201cThursday Night Football,\u201d said Michaels\u2019 history of calling big games and storytelling ability made it a natural addition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a pretty good chance if it\u2019s a game you remember, Al called that game,\u201d Teitelman said.<\/p>\n
Michaels\u2019 favorite game remains Super Bowl 43 in 2009 when the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied to beat the Arizona Cardinals. Besides Santonio Holmes\u2019 6-yard TD catch with 35 seconds remaining, the game also included James Harrison\u2019s 100-yard interception return on the last play of the first half.<\/p>\n
It was also Madden\u2019s last game as an analyst. He announced his retirement three months later.<\/p>\n
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Michaels has felt a jolt of energy working with Herbstreit, who is the busiest man in football between his college and NFL duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how he does it. He\u2019s got gigantic energy, and he\u2019s tremendously well prepared,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cWe have a lot of fun. I think we have a great back-and-forth, give-and-take. It\u2019s natural. It took a little while to become natural, but it does with anybody. And once we got going, great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Video is averaging 14.96 million viewers, making it the most-watched season since a regular Thursday night package started in 2006. That is a 13% increase over last year\u2019s average and a huge leap from 9.58 million average during Prime Video\u2019s first year in 2022.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Al Michaels has achieved many milestones during his Hall of Fame broadcasting career. The one he has reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-364280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}