The legendary Al Michaels continues to call the biggest of NFL games, four decades after making his debut on Monday Night Football. Now in his fifth year with Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, the 81-year-old broadcasting icon realizes that, at some point, it will end.
Appearing on Wednesday's edition of The Dan Patrick Show, Michaels addressed the question of when he'll know the time has come.
“Well, either the people that I work for will tell me, or I’ll know myself, a combination,” Michaels said, via Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing. “Let’s put it this way. The folks at Amazon and Prime have been fantastic. Fantastic to me.”
After his initial three-year deal, Prime Video has extended the arrangement on a one-year basis, twice. If they don't do it again, Michaels will be fine with that.
“If they come to me and say, 'You know, it’s time for us to move on.' . . . 'You guys have been fantastic. You’ve been great.' 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 feel it’s time, I’ll know it. And I’ll say, ‘You know what? Thanks for the memories.'"
We're the ones who should be thanking him. As we've said before, many won't appreciate how much of our sports-watching lives he has influenced until he's no longer part of it. And while there are plenty of highly competent voices out there, Michaels is one of the very best to ever do it — possibly the best of all of the play-by-play announcers.
He has been able to land in a high-profile spot after his tenure at NBC ended before he likely wanted it to. We've been able to listen to him call games for another four-plus years, thanks to the fact that Prime Video hired him.
So either he'll walk away or he'll get a nudge. Either way, Michaels's long and distinguished journey has much greater meaning than however the road ends. For me and many others, it won't be the same to go through a football season without hearing him calling a game every week.