Al Michaels will be calling NFL games from a different network this fall. According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, the legendary play-by-play announcer is in agreement with Amazon Prime Video to lead its booth when it begins its exclusive coverage of Thursday Night Football this fall. He will be joined by Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN, and an official announcement could come this week.
Michaels is expected to sign a three-year contract after months of negotiations. The 77-year-old will reportedly be paid near as much as Joe Buck who signed a five-year, $75 million contract with ESPN. Buck will be joined by his longtime Partner at Fox Troy Aikman to call Monday Night Football games.
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Michaels became a free agent after calling the Super Bowl in February. And while he won’t call Sunday Night Football games regularly anymore, Marchand reports that he will work a game or two for NBC, including its extra NFL playoff game. Taking Michaels’ place is Mike Tirico who has called his share of Sunday Night Football games in the past.
It was reported that Michaels waited to sign with Amazon to see if ESPN or Fox would be available. Michaels and his team reportedly reached out to Fox, but the network decided to go with Kevin Burkhardt as the No. 1 play-by-play man. Burkhardt has not signed a new contract yet, but it’s expected he and Greg Olsen to be the No. 1 team for Fox.
Amazon became the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football after signing a 12-year contract with the league. The streaming service has been targeting Michaels since June and has also gone after Aikman, Los Angles Rams coach Sean McVay and San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch among others. Michaels’ first game on Amazon has yet to be determined as the NFL schedule will be released sometime in the spring.
Michaels was the play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Football for 16 seasons. In his career, Michaels has won eight Emmy Awards — seven for Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-by-Play and one in 2011 for the Lifetime Achievement Award. Michaels has called 11 Super Bowls in his career and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013 with the Pete Rozelle Radio & Television Award.
