Al Michaels Is Giving Football Fans One More Year In The Broadcast Booth (At Least)

NFL viewers will get at least one more year of Al Michaels calling Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime next season, according to The Athletic.

The 80-year-old broadcast legend had signed a three-year deal worth $15 million per year that was scheduled to run out after this season. According to reports, he will definitely return next year, but from there on out it will be a year-by-year decision.

I'm a Michaels fan, but I seem to be in the minority as some on social media were not too pleased with the news.

THURSDAY NIGHT GAMES HAVE NOT BEEN TOO KIND TO AL

As we've covered here on OutKick, the "Do you believe in miracles?" broadcaster has recently had a rough couple of years in the booth. Michaels has faced criticism for not paying attention to the game at times, to getting his calls wrong, to even ticking off Swifties just as Amazon Prime was desperate to draw them in as new NFL fans for ratings revenue. Most notably, however, he seemed to be cursed as Thursday night matchups ended up being awful games. 

"Early on, the first year, it was not so much my displeasure with the actual schedule but the way the games were turning out. We had that Indianapolis-Denver game and a Washington-Chicago game and they were not games that will ever be remembered by NFL Films," Michaels told the New York Post. 

"Last year was considerably better, and this year is even better than that — by far the best of all, and I think a lot of it has to do with where the business is right now. Streaming is more and more important."

WON'T WEAR OUT HIS GOODBYE

Michaels has said that when the time comes to retire, the GOAT will recognize GOAT and he plans on following a similar exit like John Madden did.

"I'm not gonna go out kicking and screaming. I'm gonna be very much like John Madden when it comes time… He just said, ‘it's time, it's time.’ I think I'll feel that it's time," Michaels previously told Sports Illustrated.

As all sports fans know, there's a unique relationship between the broadcaster and the viewer, and for the more old school guys, it seems to be more difficult for them to adapt. Bob Costas recently stepped down from future MLB play-by-play broadcasts after getting absolutely eviscerated for his monotonous, boring, slow-paced calls during this year's MLB playoffs that found Costas trending on social media for multiple days for all the wrong reasons.

For Michaels to be asked back for [at least] one more year, this may be his own miracle. Let's see what he does with it!

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