Al Michaels is every favorite NFL viewer’s punching bag broadcaster these days, but his partner Kirk Herbstreit believes if the NFL product were better and the Thursday Night Football schedule brought more pedigree, Michaels would rise to the occasion.
Herbstreit, who calls TNF with Michaels on Prime Video, joined Pardon My Take this week and likened the games to small potatoes versus the big weekend primetime matchups he and Michaels are used to calling.
“Al, when he would do Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football, those games were massive … and your voice projects based on the setting that you’re in,” Herbstreit explained. “These Thursday night games, they’re good, but I don’t think they’re at the level of a Sunday night game or what I’m doing, a Saturday night game. I think your voice always matches with what you’re doing.”
Furthermore, Herbstreit believes fans are using one-off examples to perpetuate a false perception that Michaels is going downhill.
“Everyone is holding the Jacksonville game, the playoff game, against him,” Herbstreit said of the Jaguars-Chargers playoff game that Michaels called for NBC alongside Tony Dungy earlier this year. “They got a lot of criticism after that game. I think it’s almost like, social media, they’re using that as a narrative.”
Herbstreit also believes last season’s 12-9 atrocity between Indianapolis and Denver left a sour taste in viewers’ mouths that they hold against Michaels as well. The way Herbstreit sees it, Michaels still has his fastball when he needs it.
“As a guy sitting next to him, I’m like you. I’m sitting next to Al Michaels … and I’m his biggest fan going back to the 1980 Olympics, and to be working with him is very surreal,” Herbstreit added. “I’ve noticed that Al Michaels is very much like me. When the game warrants excitement, he brings excitement.”
However, the 79-year-old Michaels hears the noise. He knows NFL fans aren’t pleased with his performance. But he think it’s a bunch of baloney.
“He hears the noise,” Herbstreit said. “I don’t think he’s like, ‘I’ll show them, I’m going to really bring it this week.’ He’s not doing that. He has much more of an F-U attitude than I’m going to show them. So he thinks it’s a bunch of bulls***, I think it’s a bunch of bulls***, and I think it’s a narrative that social media is kind of running with.”
Many broadcasters have come to Michaels’ defense. And he has said he does not plan to retire any time soon.
The war between Michaels and vocal NFL fans continues.
