1. The Commanders and Bears somehow managed to score fewer points (19) Thursday night than the Colts and Broncos did a week ago (21).
We told you last week the only thing that made Indianapolis’s 12–9 win over Denver somewhat watchable was the performance of play-by-play man Al Michaels, who did not hold back in letting viewers know the game was a pig.
Unfortunately for Michaels, his partner, Kirk Herbstreit, Amazon Prime Video, NFL fans, the league and anyone else associated with football, Washington and Chicago gave us another pig last night.
After back-to-back weeks of inept football, viewers became concerned for Michaels.
One side note before I get to that: While combing through Twitter to see what people were saying about the legendary broadcaster, I was stunned at the amount of tweets I saw that said something like, “Why should anyone feel bad for Michaels? He left Sunday Night Football for the money.” Or, “Al took the money and ran.”
Let’s be clear about one thing. Al Michaels did NOT want to leave Sunday Night Football. It seems clear NBC pushed Michaels out because of his age, because it had Mike Tirico waiting in the wings and because it didn’t make a ton of sense to pay both Michaels and Tirico big salaries.
But Michaels didn’t want to retire. So, once Joe Buck and Troy Aikman landed at ESPN for Monday Night Football and once Fox decided to elevate Kevin Burkhardt to its No. 1 announcer spot after Buck left, Michaels decided to take the Prime Video gig. So while Michaels is paid A LOT of money by Amazon and nobody should throw a pity party for him, there’s nothing wrong with saying he got a raw deal. Every single one of us would love to make what Al makes, but every single one of us would also be bummed to get pushed out of our jobs because of age.
And we’d also be bummed if we went from calling what is usually the second-best game of the week on Sunday night (after the Sunday 4:25 p.m. game) to the seventh or eighth-best game of the week.
Most people seem to understand, which is why the best part of last night’s game was seeing the concern for Michaels on social media and the reaction to Al’s performance.
2. Former NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol gave us one of the worst backtracks you'll ever see on Thursday. Ebersol had given an interview where he torched Tony Romo.
“I’ve known Tony Romo, since he first got to the pros,” Ebersol told CNN. “He’s an unbelievably engaging guy; he should have been a terrific, great broadcaster. Something’s happened since he got into that chair. And it doesn’t seem like he’s into it. Like he was on his way up. He does not seem to be the storyteller that he should be. The thing that makes [Al] Michaels great, [Joe] Buck great, and all these guys are they’re really storytellers. And Tony has gotten further and further away from that, I think.”
Of course, those comments got significant pickup across the World Wide Web, so Ebersol issued a statement to the New York Post.
“Tony Romo is like a son to me. I am truly his biggest fan on and off the field. As a fan and a producer, I have always been known to offer up unsolicited notes. But this time, after a long day of interviews, I went too far and frankly said things that I do not believe and are simply not true. No announcer is more passionate about the NFL than Tony Romo, and I personally cannot wait to hear his call this and every Sunday. He is as good as it gets.”
So Ebersol trashed Romo because ... he did too many interviews in one day?
3. If you enjoy a good angry postgame press conference like I do, Commanders coach Ron Rivera gave us a good one last night.
4. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was miked up for a four-touchdown game against the Raiders on Monday night, and it was pretty amusing.
5. If hockey wants to improve its ratings, I suggest having more former players/podcast hosts taunt players from the stands on an arena mike during the game, the way Biz Nasty and Ryan Whitney did to Sidney Crosby on Thursday night.
6. This week's Sports Illustrated Media Podcast features a conversation with radio legend Dan Le Batard.
Le Batard talks about his time at ESPN, why he had to leave the company, the ups and downs he had there over the years and the generous move ESPN made when he left. Le Batard also discusses going out on his own, why he partnered with DraftKings, having such a loyal, rabid fan base, why he hates sports debates, Stephen A. Smith’s status at ESPN and much more.
The podcast closes with the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata, from WFAN and SNY in New York. This week, we discuss the MLB postseason, Bob Costas’s calling a playoff series for TBS, Davante Adams’s shoving a cameraman and Troy Aikman’s controversial comments. We also give out a weekly NFL “best bet.” I’m 5–0 on the season, while Sal is 3–2, so it might be time to fade me.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
