Amazon Prime’s Al Michaels BLASTS critics of his non-enthusiastic announcing style on Thursday Night Football: ”What do you want me to do?’
Amazon Prime’s Al Michaels BLASTS critics of his unenthusiastic way of announcing Thursday Night Football: “What do you want me to do?”
- Michaels referenced that other respected commentators have similar styles
- He previously criticized the lack of quality in many of the Thursday Night matches
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Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels has hit back at critics of his announcing style and lack of enthusiasm to call games, speaking with Sports Business Journal.
Michaels, 78, is entering his second season titled “Thursday Night Football” alongside Kirk Herbstreit for Amazon Prime.
“Look, sometimes I take some s–t,” Michaels said.
“People say, ‘He didn’t get excited enough.’ What do you want me to do? Scream, shout, shout the game? I’m not that. That’s not (Joe) Buck, that’s not (Jim) Nantz.”
“I can’t pay attention to anti-social media. We live in a country of 330 million people. And when eight people make fun of you on social media, I go, “huh?”
Amazon’s Al Michaels has hit back at critics for his unenthusiastic announcement style on TNF
Michaels will be in the booth again this year for Thursday Night Football with Kirk Herbstreit
This year’s TNF schedule features several games that should be exciting from last year
“Now everyone who’s in a basement has a platform.” continued Michaels.
“You can’t let such things upset you. I’ve been doing this for so long. And I wouldn’t still be doing a big package here right now if I did it the wrong way.”
Michaels had also previously criticized the range of games featured on TNF on Amazon.
“I think I’m on point in my life and career, I’ve been watching sports since I was 6 years old, I feel what the audience feels,” said Michaels.
“The Denver-Indianapolis game (in) Week 4 was a terrible game. No other way to describe it. No touchdowns.’
“At one point during the game I said to (analyst) Kirk (Herbstreit), ‘Is it possible that this game is so bad that it’s actually good?’ He had never heard that from a partner and said, “No!”
The lack of quality displayed during much of Thursday night’s games, which had also been complained about during the season, likely led to a lack of enthusiasm in calling the action.
Several games on this season’s Amazon schedule will be more exciting — at least on paper — like the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins playing in the NFL’s first-ever game on Black Friday, the New York Giants playing the San Francisco 49ers.