Al Michaels has offered a reaction to the criticism he got from fans during and after the thrilling Wild Card showdown between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday.
A Chargers win seemed like a sure thing after they took a commanding 27-0 lead on the night, but the Jaguars stormed back to win the game 31-30.
Michaels and Tony Dungy were the ones in the booth for the game and have since come under heavy criticism for their lackluster commentary even as the Jaguars stole the lead with a last-second field goal to complete their comeback.
The Amazon Prime announcer made a return to NBC for the playoffs and many were happy to have him back, except he and Dungy didn’t quite sound like they were watching the same game everyone else was.
Speaking to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post via text, Michaels hit back at fans with claims that he was pleased with his performance and got many messages from people praising it.
“Must have gotten a hundred texts from folks who were very happy to see me back on NBC,” he said. “Read some comments that we didn’t sound excited enough. Internet compost! You know me as well as anyone — no screaming, no yelling, no hollering. It’s TELEVISION! Ellipses and captions are [sufficient] when pictures tell the story.”
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“I thought the energy was much better once Jax made it a game,” Michaels said. “27-0 makes it difficult to make it sound like more than it is. One of the things that I think makes Tony good is that he doesn’t overtalk and load it up with unneeded blather. He’s measured, but almost everything he says has relevance and poignancy. A lot of folks who understand this industry are annoyed with the over-the-top yelling that makes a game sound like an offshoot of talk radio. I’m in that corner, but there are others who obviously think otherwise.
“Don’t you find it ironic that the most understated announcer of all time was the iconic Pat Summerall. And before that — Ray Scott. And lots of folks still yearn for that style. One size doesn’t fit all.”
Michaels does have a point here, he’s an old-school guy. But teaming him up with another calm personality such as Dungy was probably not the best way to go as it certainly did not do the game justice.
