Al Michaels has achieved many milestones during his Hall of Fame broadcasting career.
The one he has reached this season, though, may stand the test of time — 40 years as the play-by-play announcer for one of the NFL’s primetime packages.
According to research from the 506 Sports Archive, the Christmas night game between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs on Prime Video will be his 779th NFL broadcast.
“I mean, it’s been a fantastic ride. I mean, it’s unbelievable because it came out of nowhere back in 1986,” Michaels said. “I’m thinking 40 years, you don’t think in those terms when you’re 40 years old, but here we are. It’s hard to believe, but I am blessed and thankful.”
Except for two years in 1974 and ‘75, when Michaels did afternoon games for NBC and CBS, Michaels’ broadcasts have been mostly in prime time. He has also called 11 Super Bowls, tying him with Pat Summerall.
Michaels was the play-by-play voice for ABC’s “Monday Night Football” from 1986 until 2005. He was then traded to NBC when it launched “Sunday Night Football” in 2006, and he called that package until 2021. This is his fourth season doing Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football.”
Michaels is the dean of NFL announcers in terms of games called. CBS’ Kevin Harlan is the closest among active announcers, with 542, and would need at least 13 seasons to catch Michaels whenever he decides to retire.
Michaels, who turned 81 in November, has shown no signs of slowing down.
“We’ve all done so many big games at this point, but he truly gets excited when he has the opportunity to do a big game. And you can’t say that for a lot of people in our business,” said Fred Gaudelli, who was Michaels’ producer for 23 seasons. “After a certain amount of time, you lose that fire in your belly to really do it, and he’s never lost that.”
Kirk Herbstreit, who is in his fourth season as Michaels’ partner, said he has grown to appreciate Michaels’ ability to manage a broadcast.
“I’ve always noticed that the bigger the moment, when you really feel urgency as a broadcaster, Al gets calmer and just waits for the right time to bring his voice to that crescendo,” he said. “I’ve just been blown away by how he does his job, how organized and prepared he is, and how much he loves it. That’s what really comes across to me. He is completely dialed in, loves the sport, and loves telling stories.”
The road to 40
Michaels has worked with eight analysts. Cris Collinsworth worked with him the longest, at 13 seasons, while his seven years with John Madden rank among the best booth pairings.
ABC Sports executive Dennis Swanson decided to bring Michaels aboard and move Frank Gifford to the analyst spot on “Monday Night Football” after firing O.J. Simpson and Joe Namath.
Michaels had worked for ABC since 1976 and was best known for his baseball coverage and the U.S. hockey team’s run to the gold medal in the 1980 Olympics.
Gifford had been the main announcer from 1971 through ’85, but Swanson wanted a more traditional play-by-play announcer at the helm of what was then the NFL’s signature package.
In 1987, “Monday Night Football” returned to a three-man booth when Dan Dierdorf joined from CBS. He, Michaels and Gifford worked together for 11 seasons, including three Super Bowls.
“Frank and I got along great, but I think the feeling was from Swanson and the people at ABC is that Frank had been out of the game so long that they needed to or felt they needed to bring somebody more contemporary in,” Michaels said. “Dan was an easy fit for us. I mean, a three-man booth is never easy, and it is rough around the analysts because they have to decide who’s coming in at what point, but it was a natural flow.”
The Dennis Miller experience
The most unique booth was the 2000 and ’01 seasons when Michaels was paired with Dan Fouts and comedian Dennis Miller. It also created an interesting dynamic for Michaels.
“It was so different than anything else I’ve done in my entire 50-year career,” Michaels said. “It was not easy because my biggest problem was Dennis had a lot of really good lines, but if I laughed too much, I would sound like a hyena. And if I didn’t laugh, then people would say, Al hates him. Dan is trying to do regular analysis, and we had to adjust and adapt.
“I look back very fondly on those years because they were different. I love to laugh, and working with Dennis Miller, you’re going to laugh a lot. I did off the air as well as on.”
Michaels said Miller’s greatest line came during the wild New York Jets comeback victory over the Miami Dolphins in 2000, when Jets offensive tackle Jumbo Elliott caught a TD pass to send it into overtime.
“It’s the first touchdown of his career, and Dennis chimes right in and goes, ‘couldn’t keep him down forever,’ which was just a phenomenal line, phenomenal in that moment. So that was Dennis at his best. You’re just capturing a moment, saying something pithy like that. It is funny,” Michaels said.
Back to the two-man booth
Michaels has been part of a two-man booth since 2002, when Madden came over from Fox to join “Monday Night Football.” They worked together for seven seasons, including the move to NBC in 2006 when “Sunday Night Football” started.
Their first broadcast together was the 2002 Hall of Fame game. By the second commercial break, Michaels felt their partnership was already natural.
Michaels’ hardest season was 2005, the last on ABC before “Monday Night Football” moved to ESPN. Madden went to NBC, as did producer Gaudelli and director Drew Esocoff. After Super Bowl 40, Michaels was traded to NBC in exchange for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney’s precursor to Mickey Mouse that had ended up in NBC’s control.
The Al-Manac
The “Prime Video” broadcasts have subtly celebrated Michaels’ long career with a segment called “The Al-Manac,” where a key moment from a great game that Michaels has called is shown, and he gives his memories of the play or the game.
Mark Teitelman, the lead game producer for “Thursday Night Football,” said Michaels’ history of calling big games and storytelling ability made it a natural addition.
“There’s a pretty good chance if it’s a game you remember, Al called that game,” Teitelman said.
Michaels’ favorite game remains Super Bowl 43 in 2009 when the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied to beat the Arizona Cardinals. Besides Santonio Holmes’ 6-yard TD catch with 35 seconds remaining, the game also included James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return on the last play of the first half.
It was also Madden’s last game as an analyst. He announced his retirement three months later.
Michaels has felt a jolt of energy working with Herbstreit, who is the busiest man in football between his college and NFL duties.
“I don’t know how he does it. He’s got gigantic energy, and he’s tremendously well prepared,” Michaels said. “We have a lot of fun. I think we have a great back-and-forth, give-and-take. It’s natural. It took a little while to become natural, but it does with anybody. And once we got going, great.”
Prime Video is averaging 14.96 million viewers, making it the most-watched season since a regular Thursday night package started in 2006. That is a 13% increase over last year’s average and a huge leap from 9.58 million average during Prime Video’s first year in 2022.
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