It appears as though NBC staple Al Michaels could be in a different booth next season. According to a recent report from Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, Michaels is likely to join Amazon. The streaming service will be taking over the reins for the NFL's “Thursday Night Football” package starting in 2022.
According to the same report from Marchand, there is a “90 percent” chance that Michaels ultimately departs NBC in favor of Amazon. Al Michaels is only under contract with NBC through Super Bowl LVI, making a move to Amazon logistically and contractually possible for the longtime voice of the NFL on primetime.
However, there is still a chance that Al Michaels supports NBC in some capacity — including some NFL playoff games — even after his move to Amazon. It appears the veteran broadcaster is still working through the possibilities.
As it stands today, Al Michaels is the top play-by-play voice for NBC. He sits alongside former NFL wide receiver Cris Collinsworth in the “Sunday Night Football” booth. The tandem has become one of the more popular duos in professional sports broadcasting over the years, with Michaels' voice serving as a constant with major NFL games.
On the other hand, should Al Michaels eventually make his way from NBC to Amazon, Mike Tirico would then become the No. 1 play-by-play commentator at NBC. While this remains a fluid situation, it is seemingly obvious that Michaels making such a move is a legitimate possibility at this time.
Al Michaels is an icon in American sports broadcasting. He became a household name and a widely recognized national figure due to his unforgettable call of the United States Olympic hockey team's seismic upset of the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. He had already established himself as an elite baseball voice. He was the radio play-by-play man for the Cincinnati Reds in the early 1970s. He called Johnny Bench's game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 5 of the 1972 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, which the Reds later won on a wild pitch.
Al Michaels forged another unforgettable moment in broadcasting when he guided ABC Sports through its coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, which postponed Game 3 of the 1989 World Series in Candlestick Park.
Al Michaels has called Super Bowls on a rotating basis since SB XXII (Redskins-Broncos) in 1988, by far the longest tenure of any active network TV Super Bowl voice. He called his first World Series for television with ABC in 1979 (Pirates-Orioles).
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