Saturday’s Packers-Bears game will not be the last in the decades-long career of Al Michaels.
Amazon Prime Video has confirmed to Richard Deitsch of Sports Business Journal that Michaels will continue to call “Thursday Night Football” next season. Michaels told Deitsch that he feels “great” and that as long as he believes that he is at the top of his game, he would like to continue calling games.
The longtime voice of ABC’s “Monday Night Football” and NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” has been the voice of “Thursday Night Football” since the package moved to Prime Video in 2022. (He previously worked Thursday night games for NBC in 2017.) That role now includes an annual playoff game, with Prime Video set to carry one game on Wild Card weekend for the life of its rights deal.
Michaels, who was part of the Super Bowl rotation while with ABC and NBC, has called two playoff games since leaving his “SNF” role after the 2022 Super Bowl. The first was a Chargers-Jaguars Wild Card game he called for NBC as part of an “emeritus” role in 2023. But after a widely panned performance alongside Tony Dungy, he did not return to NBC’s Wild Card coverage the following year, even though the network produced a record three games. He returned to the postseason picture last season when Amazon made its Wild Card debut with Steelers-Ravens.
This year, Prime has arguably the highest-profile game of the weekend as the Packers face the Bears for just the third time in postseason play.
As is common for aging announcers, Michaels has faced scrutiny in recent years for the quality of his performance. But as easily the most accomplished play-by-play voice still working for any broadcaster, it seems increasingly likely that he will exit broadcasting on his own terms.
It is also true that there is no obvious successor to Michaels on “TNF,” as the likely choices — Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan, who call NBA games for the streamer — already work NFL games for CBS.
