Al Michaels will not be on NBC’s NFL playoff coverage, the network confirmed to the New York Post on Tuesday.
Michaels had been named into an ’emeritus’ role at NBC following his departure in 2022 at the expiration of his contract. He then joined Amazon’s Prime Video to serve as the play-by-play announcer for the property’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ package and has continued to do so this season alongside Kirk Herbstreit in the booth.
But the arrangement allowed for Michaels, 79, to return to his old stomping grounds for one of the network’s two postseason games during Wild Card weekend, as he and ex-NFL head coach Tony Dungy teamed up for the Los Angeles Chargers-Jacksonville Jaguars thriller that featured a 27-point second-half comeback for the Jaguars.
Michaels and Dungy received criticism for their lack of excitement throughout that game, and the critiques have followed Michaels into the 2023 season − although the ‘TNF’ slate does not always include the most exciting of games as players are performing on four days’ rest.
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Instead of Michaels and Dungy, NBC has assigned the game to 27-year-old play-by-play man Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge. Kathryn Tappen will be the sideline reporter. The crew is the network’s lead team for its Big Ten prime time football package that debuted this year. Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth, NBC’s No. 1 ‘SNF’ booth, will call the other game and its divisional round game.
According to the Post, Michaels appeared surprised at the possibility of being moved off his playoff assignment during a November conversation. It was during that same interview he defended himself from the negative judgements.
Michaels called ‘Sunday Night Football’ for NBC from 2006-2021 and was also the play-by-play voice of ‘Monday Night Football’ from 1986-2005.
Eagle is the son of respected announcer Ian Eagle and will call the Super Bowl this year for Nickelodeon on the child-geared broadcast. Eagle, Blackledge and Tappen will call NBC’s broadcast between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers in a standalone window on Saturday, Dec. 23.
