Al Michaels has called 11 Super Bowls in his career, and his favorite one was a matchup NBC didn’t even want to have.
Michaels joined his Prime Video colleagues Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth on their Fitz & Whit podcast this week to preview Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. And while Michaels will be watching this game as a fan, he said his favorite Super Bowl to call was John Madden’s last one, when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in 2009. It ultimately ended up being a classic game, but Michaels recalls NBC not being too excited about the matchup.
“I know Dick Ebersol was at NBC, it was his first Super Bowl since they reclaimed the package, and he was going crazy,” Michaels recalled. “He says, ‘We don’t want Arizona!’ I said, ‘Dick, relax, it’s the Super Bowl.’ People don’t wake up in the morning and go, ‘Hey, Zelda, the Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl, let’s go to the movies. They don’t do that, Dick.’ And as it turned out, it got the highest rating at that point, of any Super Bowl.”
What Super Bowl XLIII did have, however, was the Pittsburgh Steelers and an intriguing storyline. Even though it was Arizona, the Cardinals entered that game with the Kurt Warner redemption story, which was an easy one to sell.
New England vs Seattle might have a little more sex appeal than the Arizona Cardinals. But in a league that boasts star quarterbacks such as Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford, and Patrick Mahomes, NBC probably didn’t go into this season hoping for a Super Bowl matchup featuring Drake Maye and Sam Darnold.
Who knows? Maybe 15 years from now Mike Tirico will look back and say, ‘remember that time Rick Cordella lamented a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl on NBC?’ Maybe Tirico’s first Super Bowl will end up being a classic. Regardless of the matchup or the rating, the game on the field will ultimately dictate how Super Bowl LX between the Patriots and Seahawks is remembered.
Similarly, if the Cardinals were blown out against the Steelers, Ebersol could have said, ‘Told you we didn’t want this matchup.’ But thanks to the game coming down to the wire and having memorable plays throughout, a Super Bowl featuring the undesirable Arizona Cardinals ended up being the best of Al Michaels’ career.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com