Al Michaels Thrilled With Amazon’s ‘TNF’ Schedule: ‘League Did Us a Solid’
Also in Traina Thoughts: ‘Monday Night Football’ schedule quirk; Lakers fan pulls off stunt; Bears schedule release pays tribute to great show; and more.
1. One of the more intriguing plotlines regarding the NFL’s schedule release was how the league would handle Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football package after a rocky debut in 2022 thanks to a slew of horrible matchups.
Things were so bad the NFL is considering implementing flex scheduling for TNF.
The reality is that it’s not easy to give Amazon a great schedule. The best games are always going to go to NBC for Sunday Night Football and then Fox or CBS for the weekly 4:25 p.m. ET national game. Then the NFL has to take care of ESPN and Monday Night Football. So Amazon is never going to get an A+ roster of games.
However, the league did a pretty good job taking care of Amazon Prime this year.
VIkings at Eagles in Week 2 followed by Giants at Niners in Week 3 is a good start. (Amazon doesn’t have a game in Week 1, because the season opener airs on NBC.) The TNF schedule is especially strong late in the season with the Bengals-Ravens in Week 11, Dolphins-Jets in Week 12, Cowboys-Seahawks in Week 13, Patriots-Steelers in Week 14 and Chargers-Raiders in Week 15.
I reached out to the lead voice of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, Al Michaels, to see whether he was happy with what the NFL gave him this year.
"Absolutely!” he says. “Love the way we come out of the gate. Three ‘A’ grade games. Two Aaron Rodgers games. Baltimore-Cincinnati, another good one. League did us a solid.
“I was raring to go the minute I saw the whole slate. Already thinking of story lines for each game, of which there is no shortage.”
I asked Michaels what he thinks about the league’s decision to have a game on Black Friday for the first time.
“Great idea. Tens of millions recovering from the prior day’s tryptophan hangover will love it. Rodgers-Tua, a marquee matchup on any day.”
Michaels did add one note of warning.
"Last time I did a Thanksgiving game in the Meadowlands, butt fumble! Look out ahead ..."
One matchup that stood out to me about the TNF schedule was the Week 5 Bears-Commanders tilt. You’ll recall that those two teams played one of the worst games of the year last season on a Thursday night, with Washington winning 12–7 in Week 6. That came on the heels of the Colts beating the Broncos 12–9 in Week 5. I tried to get Michaels to bite on that and asked him whether scheduling that game on Thursday Night Football was a sick joke.
“I know you remember that was a classic on the heels of Indianapolis-Denver,” says Michaels. “Colts-Broncos won the Lifetime Achievement Award ...”
2. One other note from the NFL schedule release that you may not be fully aware of: ESPN and ABC will air doubleheaders in Weeks 2, 3, 14 and 18. The matchups and times for the Week 18 double dip are still TBD.
These are not straight doubleheaders that will have the second game start when the first game ends. These are overlaps. Here’s the schedule:
Week 2
Saints at Panthers, 7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN
Browns at Steelers, 8:15 p.m. ET, ABC
Week 3
Eagles at Bucs, 7:15 p.m. ET, ABC
Rams at Bengals, 8:15 p.m., ET, ESPN
Week 14
Titans at Dolphins, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN
Packers at Giants, 8:15 p.m. ET, ABC
3. Everyone’s going gaga over the Titans’ schedule release, and rightfully so, but if you watch The Bear on FX or if you’re a Seth Rollins fan, don’t sleep on the Bears’ excellent schedule release.
4. This was a very clever tweet via Scott Hanson for all the RedZone fanatics out there.
5. You can’t believe that anything you see on TikTok is real, but it does seem this one prankster was able to fool a lot of people into believing he was Lakers guard Austin Reaves while sneaking into L.A.’s arena.
6. This week's SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with ABC/ESPN lead NBA play-by-play man, Mike Breen.
Breen, who is about to call his 18th NBA Finals, talks about how wide open this year’s playoffs have been, his longtime partnership with Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, and the impressive depth of NBA broadcasters across the networks.
Breen also discusses what his relationship is like with LeBron James and James’s still going strong at 38 years old, whether he ever thinks about giving up calling Knicks games, his signature “BANG!” and “WAY OFF” calls, how he used to hook up Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden and much more.
Following Breen, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, Sal explains the disaster he had to deal with while trying to watch a Knicks playoff game. We also read recent Apple reviews listeners left for SI Media With Jimmy Traina
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of Mother’s Day this weekend.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Source: Sports Illustrated
