The legendary Al Michaels continues to call the NFL’s greatest games, four decades after his debut Monday Night Football. Now in his fifth year with Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, the 81-year-old broadcasting icon realized that, at some point, it would end.
Appearing in Wednesday’s edition of The Dan Patrick ShowMichaels answered the question of when he would know the time had come.
“Well, the people I work with will tell me, or I will recognize myselfa combination,” said Michaels, via Sam Neumann of Terrible Announcement. “Let’s put it this way. The people at Amazon and Prime are wonderful. Fantastic to me.”
After his initial three-year deal, Prime Video extended the arrangement on a one-year basis, twice. If they don’t do it again, Michaels will be okay with that.
“If they come to me and say, ‘You know, it’s time for us to move on.’ . . . ‘You guys have been incredible. You did well.’ I’ve done the NFL for 41 years, which is half my life. Love it. But you know what? At a certain time, it’s time. And if they feel it’s time, great. And if I felt it was time, I would know it. And I’d say, ‘You know what? Thanks for the memories.’”
We should thank him. As we’ve said before, many won’t appreciate how much he influenced our sports watching lives until he’s no longer a part of it. And while there are plenty of great voices out there, Michaels is one of the best to do it — possibly the best of all play-by-play announcers.
He managed to land a high-profile spot after his tenure at NBC before he probably wanted it. We were able to listen to him call games for another four years, thanks to the fact that he was picked up by Prime Video.
So either he’ll walk away or he’ll get a nudge. Either way, Michaels’ long and unique journey has a greater meaning than however the road ends. For me and many others, a football season wouldn’t be the same without hearing him call a game every week.