SI

Reminder: Al Michaels Won’t Call Wild-Card Game After Terrible Treatment From NBC

Also in Traina Thoughts: Bizarre ‘Pat McAfee Show’ narrative; LeBron leaves fan in shock; trailer for new season of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’; and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. If you’re a sports fan, you are over the moon today because this is a beautiful time: The NFL playoffs are finally here. We have a six-game bonanza on our hands this weekend, with two wild-card games Saturday, three Sunday and one Monday night. You gotta love it.

Unfortunately, I need to put on my Debbie Downer hat for just a little bit. As we get ready for the six playoff games, I can’t help but think about the travesty regarding Al Michaels.

NBC will air three wild-card games this weekend. Michaels, who now calls Thursday Night Football for Amazon, was supposed to call one of them. When NBC booted Michaels for Mike Tirico in 2022, the network signed Michaels to an “emeritus” deal, which was supposed to allow him to call events for NBC, including the NFL playoffs.

“Revered by viewers and colleagues, Al has been the soundtrack for many of the greatest moments in sports television history,” NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua said at the time. “We are thrilled that he’s staying in the family and raising the stature of our events for years to come.”

Well, “years to come” apparently meant one year, because after calling a playoff game last season, NBC pulled Michaels from the assignment this season.

Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, who called Big Ten games for NBC this season, will be in the booth for Saturday’s Browns-Texans game. Tirico and Jason Garrett will call the NFL’s money-grab game: Dolphins-Chiefs at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on Peacock. Tirico will then team with his regular partner, Cris Collinsworth, for Rams-Lions on Sunday at 8 p.m.

But this isn’t about Eagle or Tirico in any way, shape or form. It’s about Michaels.

Not only has NBC treated Michaels poorly by pulling him from the wild-card assignment, but they did so in as crummy a way as possible. Sources confirmed to me that Michaels found out he was not calling the wild-card game from New York Post sports reporter Andrew Marchand, who broke the story in mid-December that NBC wouldn’t be using Michaels on this year’s playoff coverage.

Michaels is a broadcasting legend, he has been calling games for 50-plus years and he was at NBC for more than 15 years. Apparently nobody had the courtesy to call him and tell him what’s going on? Despicable.

Whatever you think of Michaels’s current performance as a play-by-play man, you can’t deny that he deserved better from NBC.

The frustrating thing about this situation with Michaels was that there was no reason for NBC to shaft Michaels since the network had three playoff games this season.

NBC easily could’ve given Eagle the Saturday afternoon game on NBC, Michaels the Saturday night game on Peacock and Tirico the Sunday night game on NBC. It’s awfully curious that Tirico can call back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday, and Collinsworth can’t. That tells me NBC, for some unknown reason, REALLY did not want Michaels to call a game this year, and it just makes no sense.

I know some of you reading this will send me an email or a tweet to tell me Michaels doesn’t have the same energy or that you think Michaels has lost something off his fastball or that Michaels and Tony Dungy were a rough listen on last year’s Chargers-Jaguars playoff game.

Even if all of this were the case (I happen to think Michaels is still a great listen and adds a big-game feel to the game he is calling), NBC should’ve treated Michaels in a better manner, and he will be missed by most NFL fans this weekend.

Hopefully NBC at least gave Michaels a free Peacock login to watch the Browns-Texans game. 

2. The Dolphins-Chiefs game Saturday and the Steelers-Bills game Sunday sound like they will be extra fun to watch, thanks to severe weather issues.

3. The situation surrounding The Pat McAfee Show is one of the weirdest I’ve ever seen in sports media.

ESPN does not own or control The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN licenses the show. That means ESPN can’t tell McAfee what to do regarding his show. ESPN can make suggestions, but the only person who makes the decisions regarding the show is McAfee.

For some strange reason, people just refuse to believe this fact. So when McAfee announced a couple of days ago that Aaron Rodgers wouldn’t be doing his weekly interview during the postseason, many people ran with the absurd and false take that “ESPN canceled Aaron Rodgers.”

My guess is that McAfee saw that narrative and decided to show everyone that he controls his show and not ESPN, so he put Rodgers back on the show Thursday to talk about Bill Belichick.

4. This guy’s reaction at Bronny James’s USC game when he discovers LeBron is sitting next to him ... so good.

5. The final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm begins Feb. 4, and HBO released the trailer for it Thursday. Thankfully, it looks like we’ll get a good amount of Larry-Susie banter.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with author, reporter and journalist,James Andrew Miller.

Miller, who literally wrote the book on ESPN, pulls back the curtain on Pat McAfee’s on-air claim that executive Norby Williamson is trying to sabotage his show and leaking information to the press.

Miller also weighs in on the Aaron Rodgers–Jimmy Kimmel feud, the Pat McAfee Show’s role in the drama and who made the decision to discontinue Rodgers’s appearances on the show during the NFL playoffs.

In addition, Miller discusses the return (and series end) of Curb Your Enthusiasm on Feb. 4 as well as the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos.

Following Miller, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week we talk about wild-card weekend, the Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game being available only on Peacock and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: We close out our week celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos with that final scene that still gets everyone talking.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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