Al Michaels caught on hot mic calling out Los Angeles Rams

Al Michaels called out the Los Angeles Rams for stalling on Thursday Night Football, but the 81-year-old announcer didn’t appear to realize he was on-air.

After the Seattle Seahawks stormed back from a 16-point fourth quarter deficit to force overtime, Michaels was heard aptly noting, “Boy, the Rams have done zero in the last 20 minutes.” No lies told. If Michaels said the same thing within the flow of the broadcast, it may not have even been recognized as a hot mic moment. But Michaels made the comment as the broadcast returned from a commercial break, just before the start of the extra period.

Al Michaels with a rather harmless hot mic moment pic.twitter.com/DfG1UgXeTi

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 19, 2025

There was no rebuttal from Kirk Herbstreit, just silence until Michaels asked, “Who’s back?” suggesting the comment about the Rams’ scoring drought wasn’t meant to be any sort of on-air banter. Similarly, the “who’s back?” probably wasn’t meant for the audience either.

The question may have been a response to someone letting Michaels know the broadcast was back from commercial and his mic was on. Or Michaels may have been asking who was back to receive the kickoff for the Rams. But the legendary announcer was met with silence on the broadcast again until he broke it himself by saying, “Here we go, overtime” as Seattle kicked the ball off.

Michaels never said anything controversial during the hot mic moment; he could have made the same comment about the Rams with a different delivery and intended it for the broadcast. Because it was true, the Rams did zero in the last 20 minutes as they allowed Seattle to force overtime. But the comment clearly happened before Michaels realized he was on-air. The broadcast did appear to return from commercial unexpectedly, so the gaffe may not have been Michaels’ fault. But it was a hot-mic gaffe nonetheless.