Al Michaels likens selling a car to being called “Thursday Night Football” after the first season of Amazon Prime.

Al Michaels, the broadcasting legend has concluded his first season calling NFL “Thursday Night Football”. The results were mixed.

Michaels was as good as usual, which is to be praised. Kirk Herbstreit, color commentator, was solid for a broadcaster whose background is almost exclusively in college football. The production quality was excellent, except for some sound engineering problems. That’s no surprise considering the investment Amazon made.

Unfortunately, the entire crew had to still cover Thursday Night Football, the primetime program known for its ineptness and inability to deliver quality shows between tired or underprepared teams. Even with Michaels on board, the 2022 season didn’t do much to change that stereotype.

Michaels addressed Michaels’ question about the quality of TNF-games. an interview with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch published ThursdayHe was honest and forthright in his answers, especially when it came down to the duddest of all duds between Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos:

“I think I’m to the point in my life and career, having watched sports since I was 6 years old, I feel what the crowd feels. Week 4: The Denver-Indianapolis match (in) was horrible. There is no other way to describe the game. No touchdowns. In fact, at one point during the game, I said to (analyst) Kirk (Herbstreit), ‘Is it possible this game could be so bad that it’s actually good?’ He’d never heard that from a partner and went, ‘No!'”

Michaels isn’t wrong in that statement, and neither is he alone. It’s a game. a touchdown-less slog with four turnoversIt was so hard to watch, that a local Denver TV station was forced to broadcast it. apologized for airing it TNF games can still be seen in local markets, with one commentator stating that “it burns the retinas.”

But there were also more terrible games. Michaels called these games with three first-half points, lopsided blowouts And performances so brutal they basically erased any optimism about a certain No. 2 overall pick. While some games were enjoyable, many were not.

Michaels claims that Amazon handled the matter in stride. This is something you would hope for, considering how big they are. paying $1 billion a year until 2033 for the privilege of streaming the games:

Are you getting any information from Amazon management?

“The Amazon people have nothing but support. They understood this, I believe. We’re making the most of it. I mean, you just can’t oversell something. Are you asking me to sell a Mazda Mazda 20-year-old? That’s what you’re asking me to do. I can’t sell you a used car. … I’ve kind of gone down that road a little bit in games that have been bad in the past. This game was terrible. What was the best thing you could do? And I went.”

Maybe next year’s “Thursday Night Football” will be better. Amazon is not the first rightsholder that hopes so.

Michaels will still be able to play in a playoff match. NBC announced Wednesday he would return to call the Los Angeles Chargers-Jacksonville Jaguars wild-card game on Saturday.

NBC commentator Al Michaels on the field during an NFL game between the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019.  (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)

Al Michaels’ first season on Amazon was mixed. But that wasn’t his fault. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images).

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