A lot has been made about the relationship between Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit on Amazon’s Prime Video. They took on the new task of being the Thursday Night Football crew, having never worked together before. But Herbstreit seems to have a knack for working with the elder statesman in sports media, if you will, working closely with the voice of the generation in Michaels and Lee Corso, to name a few.
But it wasn’t us who made that comparison.
When discussing his relationship with Michaels, he referenced the 89-year-old Corso. And while a decade does separate the two, Herbstreit does not lose sight of the fact that he’s reached across the aisle of a generation to have different relationships with two of the oldest current figures in the space. And he’s quick to come to both of their defense.
As he talked with Kevin Clark on the This is Football podcast, Herbstreit delved into stories about Michaels, as they’re in their third NFL season together. Herbstreit did share the infamous vegetable anecdote, but for him, the biggest thing is getting to work with a legend that he grew up watching.
“When he and I are around each other, what I love about Al Michaels is how much he is a fan, like genuine fan of all sports,” Herbstreit says. “And I’ll tell you, for a guy at his age, when it comes to something that might be trending or something that’s out there, he is all over it. He’s got a phone; he’s dialed in. Whereas I work with Lee Corso, Corso has a flip phone, he doesn’t text, he doesn’t email. He doesn’t want anything to do with any of the modern generation of what we do. He’s like, ‘I use a phone to call somebody. So, if I call you, pick your damn phone up.’ And that’s Lee.
“Al’s at the other end of the spectrum. Similar age, but he’s all over what’s going on. And so, that puts him in a position when you talk to him, he’s up to date on everything. And when we go to dinner, it’s just like two buddies, two football fans, sports fans. We might be talking playoffs with baseball. We might be talking about what’s going on in the NFL. He’s interested in what’s going on in college.
“So, the thing that I’ve been blown away by is off-the-air — and I was very intentional about this because I didn’t do it Year 1 — very intentional about going to dinner on Wednesday night; we have the game on Thursday. We’re there for an hour and an hour and a half tops, and just getting to know each other and finding out we have a lot of similar interests because of our love for sports — that’s a big passion for both of us.”
Herbstreit said that he’s had a blast working with Michaels, as they’ll embark on their third season together starting this Thursday for Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins.
“Think about this. I’ve worked with Mike Tirico, and then I worked with Brent Musburger,” adds Herbstreit. “Then, I worked with Chris Fowler, who I still work with. And I work with Al Michaels. Those are the four guys I’ve called games with in my career, so I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with the guys at the top of their profession. It’s really been an honor for me to be a part of it.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.