Al Michaels excluded from NBC’s NFL playoff coverage in a surprise move from the network

Prominent NBC Broadcaster Al Michaels will not be calling any postseason games this year.

Al Michaels excluded from NBC’s NFL playoff coverage in a surprise move from the network

Al Michaels (via AP)

Renowned American broadcaster Al Michaels will no longer be a part of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage. He joined the network back in 2006. He called the first season of Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football and called the NFL Wild Card round between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, this year, the broadcaster will not be available for postseason games.

As per The New York Post, one of the reasons that Michael is being let go is a “perceived lack of enthusiasm.” The 79-year-old broadcaster is considered to be the greatest play-by-play caller of all time, he has worked for ABC and NBC while calling prime-time games. It came as no surprise that he was selected for the inaugural season of Amazon’s Thursday Night Football.

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This season, NBC is scheduled to broadcast three playoff games, two of which will be in the wild-card round and one in the divisional round. Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will be calling the three games. NBC has the exclusive rights to one postseason game which will be limited to their streaming service, Peacock.

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Al Michaels has had a shaky relationship with NBC’s top brass in recent times

The VP of NBC Sports, Greg Hughes has confirmed this news to the aforementioned source, as of now, Michaels has not yet issued any statement regarding the same. The next game he will be calling is Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob telecast of the Super Bowl in February. While the network claims this has been in the works for some time, the broadcaster was caught off guard.

Al Michaels
Al Michaels (via AP)

Al Michaels was intimated about the possibility of being left out of the network’s playoff broadcast but he pleaded ignorance to the reports:

It’s my deal. Where are you hearing that from? That’s part of my deal. Are you hearing something that I’m not hearing?

Al Michaels in conversation with Andrew Marchand

The relationship between Michaels and NBC’s top brass has not been the smoothest and now they are no longer able to keep that tension private.

The network had given its word to Tirico to give him the lead role. Michaels had expressed interest in replacing Joe Buck when he left for Fox Sports, he was also ESPN/ABC’s second choice in the vent they failed to land Buck for Monday Night Football. It is truly the end of an era with Al Michaels no longer calling postseason games. He has spent 11 Super Bowls calling plays on television.

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