Announcing mistakes happen, but they get more noticed when they come on crucial plays. And one of those happened for Al Michaels at a critical part of Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football broadcast this week.
This one came in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter. There, the Jacksonville Jaguars had the ball on the New Orleans Saints’ 44-yard line. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw a short pass to wide receiver Christian Kirk, who took it all the way to the end zone, with the last tackling attempt on him coming around the 10-yard line. But Michaels called him out at the one, even while the broadcast graphics were showing touchdown, before eventually correcting:
"Christian Kirk takes the ball all the way to…about the one-yard line. They're going to spot it…as he thinks he scored the touchdown, and they're going to call it a touchdown now." Al Michaels initially called the Jaguars' crucial TD out at the one. pic.twitter.com/D0OFAxUbEt
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 20, 2023
“Lawrence fires. That’s caught on the run. Christian Kirk, inside the 20, he goes…Christian Kirk takes the ball all the way to…about the one-yard line. They’re going to spot it…as he thinks he scored the touchdown, and they’re going to call it a touchdown now. 44 yards for Christian Kirk, into the end zone he goes.”
What’s strange about this one is that unlike many cases of “out of bounds or not?”, this didn’t appear particularly close from the broadcast view. And the last opportunity for anyone to knock Kirk out of bounds seemed to have come around the 10. So a call of him going out there might have made more sense than calling him out at the one (which would have seen him just running out of bounds himself).
It’s unclear just what happened on this call. Maybe there was something from the angle of the broadcast booth that made it hard for Michaels to see Kirk was still in bounds at that particular spot. But however it happened, it made for an unfortunate moment on what wound up being the game-winning touchdown.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.