Al Michaels didn’t sugarcoat how bad some of the matchups were throughout the NFL regular season on “Thursday Night Football.”
Michaels, who finished his first season calling “TNF” games for Amazon last month, explained one instance when it was a struggle to get through the broadcast and compared it to driving a used car.
“I think I’m to the point in my life and career, having watched sports since I was 6 years old, I feel what the crowd feels,” Michaels said in an interview with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch published Thursday. “The Denver-Indianapolis game [in] Week 4 was a dreadful game. No other way to describe it. No touchdowns.
“In fact, at one point during the game, I said to [analyst] Kirk [Herbstreit], ‘Is it possible this game could be so bad that it’s actually good?’ He’d never heard that from a partner and went, ‘No!'”
Michaels went on to explain that he received criticism for his borderline “snarky” commentary while cameras showed fans exiting Empower Field at Mile High during the underwhelming performance by the Broncos.
“We’re going to overtime and there’s a shot of maybe a thousand people walking out of the stadium,” Michaels recalled. “Then an overhead shot of people going to the parking lot. Kirk said, ‘I can’t believe it’s overtime and they are leaving.’ I said they’d seen enough. Sometimes you just have to beat the traffic. So, look, was that snarky? I guess, in a way. But you can’t tell me that didn’t reflect the feelings of a lot of people, probably the majority of people watching that game.
“…A lot of people said, ‘Al’s bored, Al’s pissed off that he’s doing this.’ Not the case. Monday nights, Sunday night, I did things like this. Maybe not to that degree, but I try to echo the feelings of what the fan feels because I’m a fan.”
When asked if had heard anything from Amazon management about the situation, Michaels gushed over the company’s support before roasting the Week 4 matchup.
“From the Amazon people, nothing but support. I think they understood what this was,” Michaels said. “We’re making the most of it. I mean, you just can’t oversell something. Do you want me to sell you a 20-year-old Mazda? That’s what you’re asking me to do. I can’t sell you a used car. … I’ve kind of gone down that road a little bit in games that have been bad in the past. But this game was horrifically bad. What were you supposed to do at that point? And away I went.”
The Broncos’ season-long struggles were on full display in the 12-9 overtime loss to the Colts in Week 4. Denver’s offense went 0-for-4 in the red zone and quarterback Russell Wilson threw two interceptions. Indianapolis also struggled on offense.
A local Denver television station apologized for airing the game, with one anchor saying saying he didn’t want to be there and the other adding, “It burns the retinas.”
“Thursday Night Football” games are broadcast in local markets outside of the NFL’s deal with Amazon.
The NFL didn’t have its best “Thursday Night Football” season, which was marked with a number of lackluster performances — including Jets quarterback Zach Wilson, who was benched in favor of Chris Streveler in the third quarter of a 19-3 loss to the Jaguars on Dec. 22.
Michaels will return to NBC to call the Chargers-Jaguars wild-card game Saturday.
