Al Michaels (left) is being pulled from Sunday Night Football this weekend “in accordance with NBCUniversal COVID-19 safety protocols,” NBC Sports said on Friday. Mike Tirico will replace Michaels on the primetime play-by-play.
The 76-year-old Michaels was voted the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence by Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame on Wednesday and will be honored July 24 during the Hall’s induction weekend.
NEW YORK (AP) — The late Hall of Fame pitchers Dizzy Dean and Don Drysdale are candidates for the Hall’s Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting, along with Fox’s Joe Buck, ESPN’s Dan Shulman and NBC’s Al Michaels. Dave Campbell, Ernesto Jerez and Buddy Blattner also are finalists, the Hall said Monday. […]
NBC Sports has declined ESPN’s initial request to engage in trade talks to acquire Al Michaels, according to sources. “We look forward to Al completing his contract and calling Sunday Night Football games on NBC,” Greg Hughes, an NBC Sports spokesman, said.
Thinking large and outside the box, ESPN plans to attempt to acquire Al Michaels from NBC Sports for Monday Night Football. ESPN would like to team Michaels with Peyton Manning in its dream booth, according to sources.
Michaels is set to join Pat Summerall as the only play-by-play announcers to call at least 10 Super Bowls when he works next weekend’s game in Minneapolis between New England and Philadelphia on NBC. The 73-year-old Michaels is in no hurry to give up the microphone on NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast, which is on target to be television’s highest-rated show for a record seventh straight year, passing the mark set by American Idol.
Exclusives
Al Michaels, Scotty Connal, Barry Johnstone, Howard Katz, Chuck Pagano, Joe Schiavo and Mickey Wittman will be honored on Dec. 17 in a ceremony in New York City .
Leslie Moonves, Al Michaels, Bob Schieffer, Dick Wolf, Ron Howard and the late Philo Farnsworth, who invented electronic television, were honored at ceremonies Monday night in Los Angeles that drew a glittering industry crowd.
Sunday Night Football commentator Al Michaels is presented with the lifetime achievement award at Monday’s ceremony in New York.
