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

[Punching Bag]

20 minutes ago, Dick_Cheney said:

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.

 

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

I did this type of work for a client.  There is a set of basic rules (opponents for next year), things NFL does not want (i.e. no more than 3 away games in a row, conference battles in last 2 weeks, up to 5 prime time games, each team appearing on a network), things NFL wants (Superbowl winner playing early game), exceptions when stadiums are not available (i.e. conventions, concerts, etc) and this reduces millions of combinations to thousands. 

More rules, wants and exceptions are added until a set NFL schedulers look at and depending on number left process them again with changes requested.

 

Note: I use AWS at work and things do not always work as promised.

[Eastport bills]

Much respect for the incredible career covering over 50 years in all the professional sports. Now at 80, Michaels doesn’t bring the fire anymore and the he wines publicly about being given bad matchups. It’s time for Al to call it a career. I personally don’t think his heart is in it anymore.The pairing with Herbstreet has little chemistry and the ratings are low by NFL standards.

[djp14150]

1 hour ago, Limeaid said:

 

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

Maybe NFL needs better parameters for the program.

AWS did not program the games.

 

the “national” games are set before the schedule is filled out.  Thr “ national” games sre those on nbc, espn, Amazon, 425 feature games, and thanksgiving/ Saturday games, as well as international games. Others are plugged in as blocks like you see weekends you might have 3 games in east/ central/ north at west team set for the same weekend….this isn’t the luck of computing.  They have a set of 120 team pairs they can choose from. 
 

the computational complexity makes it difficult to run programs to do.

 

[strive_for_five_guy]

On 12/13/2023 at 2:55 AM, chongli said:

 

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

 

 

I did not even remember Collinsworth was in the booth with those guys at one time.  Talk about three guys I cannot stand.

[PBF81]

At 79 he's lucky he's still doing anything at all in this way.  

 

 

[ExWNYer]

On 12/13/2023 at 10:03 AM, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

I figured you would say "We'll always have Lake Placid, Al..."

🤔

 

"DO YOU BELIEVE IN 'MIRACLE-EAR'?!!!"

[GunnerBill]

2 hours ago, Eastport bills said:

Much respect for the incredible career covering over 50 years in all the professional sports. Now at 80, Michaels doesn’t bring the fire anymore and the he wines publicly about being given bad matchups. It’s time for Al to call it a career. I personally don’t think his heart is in it anymore.The pairing with Herbstreet has little chemistry and the ratings are low by NFL standards.

 

Agreed. Al was great. But he has always fely like he is half assing it on Prime. Herbstreet is so low energy. The combo doesn't work. We all end up bored.

[chongli]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Agreed. Al was great. But he has always fely like he is half assing it on Prime. Herbstreet is so low energy. The combo doesn't work. We all end up bored.

 

3 hours ago, Eastport bills said:

Much respect for the incredible career covering over 50 years in all the professional sports. Now at 80, Michaels doesn’t bring the fire anymore and the he wines publicly about being given bad matchups. It’s time for Al to call it a career. I personally don’t think his heart is in it anymore.The pairing with Herbstreet has little chemistry and the ratings are low by NFL standards.

 

Well, I guess everyone has their own opinions. I try not to focus too much on the announcers. Mike Freeman, from USA Today, who wrote the article above, says they work well together:

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/mike-freeman/2023/12/29/amazon-prime-al-michaels-kirk-herbstreit/72053806007/

 

"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.

 

"Kirk has been wonderful to work with," said Michaels.

 

[...]

 

Also, Michaels' trademark cornball humor is still intact. During Thursday night's game, and after hearing fans making banging noises, Michaels said: " “Somebody’s pounding on that trash can. The Astros must be in town.”

 

He was of course referring to the Houston Astros' sign-stealing enterprise from their 2017 season.

 

After a few seconds, Michaels added: "I'm sorry. Don’t rip me."

 

I won't. It was funny."

 

 

[Draconator]

2 hours ago, chongli said:

Also, Michaels' trademark cornball humor is still intact. During Thursday night's game, and after hearing fans making banging noises, Michaels said: " “Somebody’s pounding on that trash can. The Astros must be in town.”

 

He was of course referring to the Houston Astros' sign-stealing enterprise from their 2017 season.

 

After a few seconds, Michaels added: "I'm sorry. Don’t rip me."

 

I won't. It was funny."

 

 

Astros can suck it

Al Michaels is a world class broadcaster

Edited December 30, 2023 by Draconator

[machine gun kelly]

On 12/12/2023 at 4:16 PM, eball said:

Sucks if they blindsided him with this, but I'll say he has really dropped off over the last couple of years.  Happens to the best of 'em and he's a legend at his craft.

 

Yep Edog.  He’s in the same ballpark as Frank Gifford, Dandy Don, John Madden, Pat Summerall and the great…

 

 

The legend that is Howard.

[May Day 10]

You would think we aren't that far off from being able to create an AI version of Madden and Summerall that is pretty dynamic and authentic sounding.  

[Solomon Grundy]

I heard Steve Tasker, yesterday, say that CBS let him go because he was "aged" out

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 hours ago, Draconator said:

Al Michaels is a world class broadcaster

And as far as we know, never wore his woman's underwear.

🤔

[Billsatlastin2018]

On 12/12/2023 at 8:31 PM, dpberr said:

Yay, more company man Mike Tirico...

Yep. Hasn’t that guy become the absolute Shield bootlicker?
He won’t take a stand on ANY game FUBAR!

 

As for Al, the time to head off the frozen tundra, is when you start whistling through your dental implants! That was years ago.

 

Did become waaaay more gambling edgy recently.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Billsatlastin2018

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

28 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

You would think we aren't that far off from being able to create an AI version of Madden and Summerall that is pretty dynamic and authentic sounding.  

All the Summerall AI has to say is "Amp Lee", and "OK, John."

[JESSEFEFFER]

9 hours ago, Eastport bills said:

Much respect for the incredible career covering over 50 years in all the professional sports. Now at 80, Michaels doesn’t bring the fire anymore and the he wines publicly about being given bad matchups. It’s time for Al to call it a career. I personally don’t think his heart is in it anymore.  The pairing with Herbstreet has little chemistry and the ratings are low by NFL standards.

For the last few years of Ryan Fitzpatrick's playing career, I kept making the point that he would be a great candidate for a network broadcast job if he wanted one.  His 9 city playing career, smarts and personality made him a uniquely qualified candidate to add to an NFL broadcast.  But, I was not thinking of a Harvard version of the Terry Bradshaw studio commentator role. I thought he could be a better version of Tony Romo.  Smarter, more fun, more league wide connections, more self aware, more energy.  I think the only thing Herbstreit brings to the role is that he has many more years of having done it, albeit in his unremarkable, lowkey style.

[WhoTom]

17 minutes ago, JESSEFEFFER said:

For the last few years of Ryan Fitzpatrick's playing career, I kept making the point that he would be a great candidate for a network broadcast job if he wanted one.  His 9 city playing career, smarts and personality made him a uniquely qualified candidate to add to an NFL broadcast.  But, I was not thinking of a Harvard version of the Terry Bradshaw studio commentator role. I thought he could be a better version of Tony Romo.  Smarter, more fun, more league wide connections, more self aware, more energy.

 

Agreed. I'd love to see Fitz as an analyst. I rarely watch the pre or post-game shows, so I don't really care who's in the studio.

 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

1 hour ago, JESSEFEFFER said:

For the last few years of Ryan Fitzpatrick's playing career, I kept making the point that he would be a great candidate for a network broadcast job if he wanted one.  His 9 city playing career, smarts and personality made him a uniquely qualified candidate to add to an NFL broadcast.  But, I was not thinking of a Harvard version of the Terry Bradshaw studio commentator role. I thought he could be a better version of Tony Romo.  Smarter, more fun, more league wide connections, more self aware, more energy.  I think the only thing Herbstreit brings to the role is that he has many more years of having done it, albeit in his unremarkable, lowkey style.

This well thought out reply immediately caused me to picture a mash-up of:

[Buffalo ill]

I didn't realize he is 79.  The dude looks great.

[TheFunPolice]

I for one will enjoy listening to Al Michaels, even if he's not the same as he once was. One day we won't be able to. 

 

There's a lot of bad announcing out there. 

 

soon Tom Brady will be a #1 guy calling games for Fox and doing the "old school football guy" routine