Flexing its muscle, the NFL has disrupted NBC’s plans for Thursday Night Football.
According to the New York Daily News, the NFL rejected NBC’s request to name Mike Tirico the play-by-play broadcaster on its Thursday Night Football package. Instead, Sunday Night Football voice Al Michaels will work the games with Cris Collinsworth.
As part of the Thursday Night Football contract, NBC agreed to use its top NFL broadcast team on the games. CBS made the same agreement, which is why Jim Nantz and Phil Simms prioritized Thursday night games the past two seasons, even skipping some Sundays.
Tirico, coming off of ten seasons as the voice of ESPN’s Monday Night Football, is second on NBC’s depth chart behind Michaels. Even with his previous experience and the high regard in which he is held, the NFL apparently wanted to avoid any hint that Thursday night games are not top priority.
Though it was never officially stated, it was widely reported — to the point of being taken as fact — that NBC would give Tirico the Thursday night gig. The move would have kept Tirico in the mix as one of the NFL’s top-tier broadcasters and allowed Michaels to avoid doubling his weekly workload, which had been a concern for both he and Collinsworth.
The network went as far as to assign Tirico to its two NFL preseason games alongside Collinsworth — including one this Thursday night — a clear indication that he was to have some play-by-play role on the network’s coverage.
(News from New York Daily News, The Big Lead)
