Al Michaels may be leaving NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” but he’s not leaving NBC.
The veteran broadcaster, who revealed in March that he plans to lead Amazon’s new broadcast of “Friday Night Football” in the fall, is maintaining a foothold in NBC Sports. Michaels will have “honorary” status and is expected to contribute across the NBC Sports portfolio, including, the company said, to the NFL Playoffs and Olympics.
“Revered by viewers and colleagues, Al has been the soundtrack to many of the greatest moments in sports television history,” Pete Bevacqua, Chairman of NBC Sports, said in a statement. “We are thrilled that he has stayed in the family and raised the profile of our events for years to come.”
Michaels has covered more major sporting events than any sports announcer, and has, at times, found himself recounting history as well as a particular event. It’s the sports announcer who made the iconic call in 1980 when the US men’s hockey team upset the USSR at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. “Do you believe in miracles?” Michaels asked. “yes!” He also helped cover the 1989 San Francisco earthquake during a World Championship play. He became the second sports broadcaster in history to receive a News Emmy nomination for his efforts. Michaels spent 20 years calling “Monday Night Football”, the only commentator to have called the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals and hosted the Stanley Cup Final for network television.
“I look forward to continuing my longstanding relationship with NBC as the ‘Package on Amazon’ launches this fall,” Michaels said in a statement. One factor that may have played a role in the agreement? NBC Sports is producing Amazon’s NFL effort, even going so far as to allow a product Sports veteran Fred Gaudelli, a mainstay of NBC Sports, worked on the Amazon issue on Thursday night.
NBC, like many other networks, has focused on sports talent as fees for big game rights continue to rise. In recent months, Disney’s ESPN has raided Joe Buck and Troy Aikman for its “Monday Night Football” show and Fox Sports made an agreement with Tom Brady to call up the NFL games once he retired from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The ranking sets Michaels to play a role in NFL post-season coverage on NBC, though the network has already paired Mike Terrico with Chris Collinsworth for the upcoming NFL regular-season lineup of Sunday night games.
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