Al Michaels Is Reportedly Heading To Amazon For "Joe Buck Money" To Announce Thursday Night Football
NY Post- Legendary NFL play-by-player Al Michaels is in agreement with Amazon Prime Video to lead its booth when it begins its exclusive coverage of Thursday Night Football in the fall, The Post has learned.
Michaels’ partner will be ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit. An official announcement could come as early as this week. Amazon declined to comment. Michaels is expected to sign the contract shortly after months and months of negotiations. Michaels will be paid near the Joe Buck neighborhood, according to sources. Buck signed a five-year, $75 million deal with ESPN to join his longtime partner at Fox, Troy Aikman, on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.” Michaels’ contract is for three years.
So it looks like we finally have our announcing booths for the upcoming NFL season set after a whoooooooole shitload of funny money got passed around, with Al Michaels securing that Jeff Bezos bag to broadcast games on Prime your dad will have no clue how to find on his TV.
I imagine someone with Al's resume and prestige doesn't love it being reported that he is making "Joe Buck money" considering he is Al fucking Michaels, a goddamn legend that called The Miracle On Ice perfectly. But I think Al's incredible career hit a point of no return in terms of craziness once he was traded for a cartoon rabbit because Disney wanted to included it in a video game.
To be clear, Al Michaels deserves every dollar of that Al Michaels Money not only because hearing his voice instantly makes Thursday Night Football feel like an event but because Al has been casually hinting about gambling long before the NFL embraced it with open arms and legs (Download the Barstool Sportsbook app today!). The only NFL announcer that is going to come close to the authenticity of the maniacs in the gambling cave when it comes to talking betting during NFL games is Al.
I still don't love Kirk Herbstreit being the TNF color commentator since my brain instantly thinks college football, funny tailgating signs, and Lee Corso every time it hears his voice. But Al Michaels' voice overshadows all that since my brain instantly associates it with the biggest prime time NFL game of the week where I need my fantasy players to outscore their projections by about 20 points each to have a chance to win my matchup. Plus this move makes Eminem happy, which I guess makes me happy since this video brings a smile to my face every time.
However, the dark side of this entire situation is that the Collinsworth Slide is either dead or going to feel like it's remarrying Mike Tirico, which would leave the rest of us as the step children that have to pretend that everything is fine and nothing has changed.
Yeah, they gotta kill that shit no matter how good Mike Tirico is at his job because that slide isn't going to feel the same without Al Michaels' sweet pipes serenading it on screen.