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Al Michaels out for NFL playoffs on NBC in move he wasn't expecting


chongli

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2 hours ago, chongli said:

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Now might be a good time to get Peacock, which has local NBC on its higher tier, IIRC. Or over-the-air works too.

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Peacock is another $5.99/month. I watch the free version but at some point a few months ago the Dan Patrick shows became delayed a day. The Friday show is no good to me Monday morning. I am quickly falling into the SCREW the NFL, and Peacock and every other service they want to *** out to to make an extra buck.Ā 

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I donā€™t hate anyone for being rich. I might have issues with how the sausage was made.Ā 

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17 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said:

I grew up on Al Michaels monday night football. He seemed bored, unenthused and unimpressed during the games this year. That is probably due to the quality of games on thursdays this year and not his age.Ā 

You missed the Howard Cossell era then. The entire nation would tune in just to hear what he and Don Meredith would have to say. It was great fun!Ā 

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Just now, SoCal Deek said:

You missed the Howard Cossell era then. The entire nation would tune in just to hear what he and Don Meredith would have to say. It was great fun!Ā 

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Back in the day you tuned in just because they had that quick run of highlights from each game. THAT was your view into the NFL that weekend. Things have changed, a bit.Ā 

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1 minute ago, Augie said:

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Back in the day you tuned in just because they had that quick run of highlights from each game. THAT was your view into the NFL that weekend. Things have changed, a bit.Ā 

I remember being allowed to stay up on a school night just praying the Bills would be among those highlights. We rarely were. šŸ˜‚

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1 hour ago, SoCal Deek said:

It seems to me that many people these days are having real trouble calling it quits before theyā€™ve past their prime. When you get to a certain stage or age itā€™s time to move on and let the next generation take these limited spots. Ā Iā€™m all for tradition but you have to look in a mirror.Ā 

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That's why I retired at the first available opportunity. I have no regrets about that and the young woman who took my former position had been a student of mine, so it was doubly sweet. I do some freelancing in a related field - I like to say that it's to supplement the pension, but really, I just enjoy the work and it's a very light load.

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46 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

In my now retired life Iā€™ve learned it isnā€™t about money. These guys entire existence is wrapped up in their ā€˜jobā€™. Youā€™ve got it right when you say move over and let the new guys do their thing.Ā 

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Yeah, their careers are their identities. It's sad, actually.

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My career was just one facet of my life, but certainly not my identity. It was easy to walk away. I miss certain aspects of it, but not enough that I would ever consider going back.

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This is the worst thing an NBC exec has done since Don Ohlmeyer fired Norm from weekend update. That guy was a real jerk!

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Seriously though, there's a certain mystique about the way Al Michaels calls a game. His style is unparalleled. Still my favourite play by play announcer next to Dick Enberg.

Edited by QB Bills
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49 minutes ago, Augie said:

This confirms what I think Iā€™ve known for a while. Many people pay FAR more attention to the announcers than I do.Ā 

I have said for years, and still maintain, that other than maybe friends & family, absolutely no one tunes in to ANY sports contest because who is announcing the contest. People watch a sports event because: itā€™s their team (or for golf/tennis, they follow a certain player), itā€™s a great matchup between 2 good teams (or two good singular athletes), it's the playoffs and great games are expected, or they're betting on the event or player.

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The amount of money paid to these announcers is just absolutely mind boggling. There's no need for it. Fans will watch their team, or their favorite player, or a great matchup no matter who is calling it. Conversely, if it's bad teams, or a crap matchup, no one is tuning in because Nance & Romo are calling it.

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51 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

I remember being allowed to stay up on a school night just praying the Bills would be among those highlights. We rarely were. šŸ˜‚

We were there often enough, just not on the right end of things.Ā 

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25 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

I have said for years, and still maintain, that other than maybe friends & family, absolutely no one tunes in to ANY sports contest because who is announcing the contest. People watch a sports event because: itā€™s their team (or for golf/tennis, they follow a certain player), itā€™s a great matchup between 2 good teams (or two good singular athletes), it's the playoffs and great games are expected, or they're betting on the event or player.

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The amount of money paid to these announcers is just absolutely mind boggling. There's no need for it. Fans will watch their team, or their favorite player, or a great matchup no matter who is calling it. Conversely, if it's bad teams, or a crap matchup, no one is tuning in because Nance & Romo are calling it.

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Bad announcing though absolutely impacts my ability to enjoy a game

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38 minutes ago, dpberr said:

Yay, more company man Mike Tirico...

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You know NBC truly hates you when it dares you to watch the Tony Dungy/Jason Garrett broadcast.Ā  Little League World Series games have more cutting commentary.Ā 

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Well, thankfully, this year NBC will haveĀ Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, and Kathryn Tappen calling on of their Wild Card games.

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5 hours ago, Bob Jones said:

I have said for years, and still maintain, that other than maybe friends & family, absolutely no one tunes in to ANY sports contest because who is announcing the contest. People watch a sports event because: itā€™s their team (or for golf/tennis, they follow a certain player), itā€™s a great matchup between 2 good teams (or two good singular athletes), it's the playoffs and great games are expected, or they're betting on the event or player.

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The amount of money paid to these announcers is just absolutely mind boggling. There's no need for it. Fans will watch their team, or their favorite player, or a great matchup no matter who is calling it. Conversely, if it's bad teams, or a crap matchup, no one is tuning in because Nance & Romo are calling it.

Great point, never understood the money thrown at these announcers.Ā  Ā  If its my team or SNF, MNF, or TNF im watching unless its a blowout, announcers have no impact on my decision.Ā  Ā Just as what musician does the lead in has no impact on if im watching or not.Ā  When I read NBC pays Carrie Underwood a million a game for SNF, I was thinking, you don't have better uses for 17 million?Ā  Ā One more point on Al Michaels, I was in high school when he called the miracle on ice, next year Im retiring, again time to give a younger person a shot.

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7 hours ago, JayBaller10 said:

I thought Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are the most subdued announcers, both boring. Michaels at least has interesting things to say from time to time and has some voice inflection for certain calls, unlike the aforementioned boring duo. If NBC wants excitement, bring back Gus Johnson.

Joe Buck is a nepo baby.Ā  Ā  He lost me with his faux outrage on the Randy Moss pretend mooning, you would have thought Moss whipped out his junk or something.

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35 minutes ago, billsfan714 said:

Joe Buck is a nepo baby.Ā  Ā  He lost me with his faux outrage on the Randy Moss pretend mooning, you would have thought Moss whipped out his junk or something.

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Yeah, it was a weird call. Collinsworth seemed to enjoy it though. I actually thought it was hilarious:

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Edited by chongli
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Al Michaels is one of the all time greats and one of my favorites.Ā  Sucks for him to find out this way.Ā  I still liked his commentary but he was pretty low positive since he split from Collinsworth.Ā  Hard to blame him. He dealt with a lot of really bad Thursday night football games.

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Loyalty is a 2 way street, when Al chased the big bucks from amazon, I bet the NBC people weren't thrilled.Ā  Well he got the money and the less than awesome Thursday night lineup.Ā  Ā Now he gets no playoff games, so enjoy the money Al and look forward to next years Panthers/Cardinals game.

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I hope Amazon continues to get more games. It's the best football-watching experience now in my opinon. The pre and post-game analysts are far-better than any other network and the ability to pause the game and pick up where I left off is unrivaled (especially as the father of a 9-month-old).Ā 

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  • 3 weeks later...

UPDATE:

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Al Michaels says he will return next year to continue broadcasting TNF on Amazon Prime:

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"I feel good," Michaels said. "I feel healthy. I feel fine. I told Amazon that I'd do three years and next year will be three, and I'm definitely doing it. We'll see after that."

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"I still love this job. I still get a charge out of going into a stadium and watching the best in the world do what they do. I'm still really happy so that's the big thing.

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[...]
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"Amazon has been really great to me and I'm appreciative that I've been a part of helping them grow their NFL presence," Michaels said.

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Michaels has actually been a miracle for Amazon Prime. He meshes well with analyst Kirk Herbstreit who isn't flashy but his straightforward bluntness with little bombast is refreshing

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[...]
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Herbstreit earlier this month defended Michaels from criticism that some of his broadcasts lacked energy.

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"He hears the noise. I don't think he's like, 'I'll show them. I'm going to really bring it this week.' Heā€™s definitely not doing that,"Ā Herbstreit said.Ā "He has more of an ā€˜F youā€™ attitude about it than 'I'm going to show them.' He thinks it's a bunch of bullsh--. I think it's a bunch of bullsh--. And I think it's just a narrative that social media's kind of running with."

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We were watching the All Madden documentary and they talked about how NBC tried basically every year to get Madden to do a one off broadcast and he never wanted to do it because he figured he went out on top with the Cardinals Steelers Super Bowl.

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I get both sides of that. Madden was a guy who left a little early. Michaels is probably way past his prime. But if he truly loves it then we're the beneficiaries.

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He's still very good. As a fan, I appreciate his work and I'm ok with him not being the same as he was 10 years ago.Ā 

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I would have freaking loved a one off Madden Michaels broadcast even if Madden wasn't the same Madden we remembered.Ā Ā 

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22 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

Wonder if theyā€™ll have as many God Awful matchups on TNF next year as they did this year? šŸ¤” If the combination of crappy teams and Al & Kirk doesnā€™t put you to sleep, youā€™re probably high on speed. šŸ˜‚

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Many of the games looked better when scheduled by the AWS algorithm.Ā 

Maybe NFL needs better parameters for the program.

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7 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

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What is this AWS algorithm you speak of?Ā 

The NFL season is scheduled largely in part by machine learning powered by the AWS cloud. Whatever the scheduling rules and year by year alignments are, they punch all that into the system and they get the NFL schedule.

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Honestly would be curious to know more about how it works on a deeper level, and what manual human input it still utilizes.

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On 12/12/2023 at 3:59 PM, Jauronimo said:

No one expects NBC Executives!!Ā  Their main weapon is surprise. Surprise and Cris Collinsworth's inane rambling. Their *two* main weapons are surprise, Cris Collinsworth's inane ramblings, and near fanatical devotion to Taylor Swift.Ā  *Among* their weapons are surprise, Cris Collinsworth's ramblings, and fanatical devotion to Taylor Swift and thats it.Ā  Also, a dizzying array of irrelevant talking heads that add no value to the broadcast...@#$@#%

Outstanding!Ā 

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