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In a surprise twist, The New York Post reported Wednesday that legendary broadcaster Al Michaels would not be part of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage team.
Instead, Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will call two of the three NFL Playoff games on its network, while 26-year-old Noah Eagle and broadcasting partner Todd Blackledge will cover the third game.
Michaels, 79, has taken heat over his lack of enthusiasm while calling games in recent years.
But some believe that’s not the reason he didn’t get the call for the playoffs. Instead, an offhand comment Michaels made in October about Taylor Swift may have landed him on the bench.
“What we’re gonna do tonight, everything in moderation,” Michaels told Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina. “Our crew talked about it this morning. You can’t make a sideshow the show. The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game. There are people, I don’t know how many, it could be a sizable number, but it’s certainly not a majority, that if you trained the camera on her all night long, they’d be satisfied with that. This is not what we’re doing to do.
“There might be an appropriate shot or a couple. I don’t know what the number is going to be. If Kelce scores six touchdowns, who the hell knows what we’re going to do. But for the most part, just in moderation. The game is still the important element here, by far. That’s our thought. After that, you sort of make it, one of my favorite words, farcical.”
Swift, of course, has permeated NFL culture ever since she began dating Kansas City Chiefs superstar Travis Kelce earlier this season.
Her presence has caused a split among fans, some of whom have welcomed it but many others whom believe she distracts from the actual game.
Clearly, Michaels was trying to strike that balance. But by referring to the pop superstar as a “sideshow,” he may have shot himself in the foot.