Al Michaels responds to criticism of himself and Tony Romo

Al Michaels has heard the criticism of himself that was levied following his time broadcasting Thursday Night NFL games for Amazon. In particular, he’s heard the criticism that he sounded bored on the broadcasting.

Michaels explained that the world has changed and nobody is exempt from being criticized. That includes highly successful broadcasters like Tony Romo who were incredibly popular.

“We live in a world that didn’t exist 20 or 25 years ago. And you’re right, Richard, everybody gets into the crosshairs at some point,” Michaels said. “Tony Romo was the flavor of the month when he came in. We’re all gonna get it. We all get it from time to time.”

Al Michaels doesn’t take this public that’s seen online very seriously, though. That’s partially because everyone gets it. It’s also partially because that criticism is often coming from a vocal minority number of people in his mind.

“Now when you say ‘get it,’ does this mean that in a country of 330 million people, if 10 people rip you or whatever adjective the internet wants to use…I mean, I laugh at that because you and I both know, that if a million people ripped you, 329 million people are not ripping. Sure, everybody wants to be loved, but I think I would not have lasted this long, where I not doing it the right way for the vast majority of people who watch football,” Michaels said.

“One of the worst things anyone in the public eye can do is type in their name in Google and see what people are saying about them. Because you’ll get a lot of compliments and a lot of slings and arrows. You just have to go, ‘Hey, look, man, I’m doing this job. I sort of know how to do it.’”

Another big difference is that when Michaels is on the call, he’s doing a national broadcast, not a local one. That changes the approach and oftentimes fans prefer regional broadcasts.

“I think when people felt that maybe I wasn’t as engaged as they wanted to…A lot of the calls of the games now are on YouTube after the game. ‘And let’s hear the local announcer in Manhattan, Kansas, scream his guts out as Kansas State scores to win the game.’ Right? And that goes as they say, ‘viral,’” Michaels added.

“I’ve never been that way. I’m not gonna scream my guts out. I’ve had some pretty good calls at the end of games, and they are shorter rather than longer, and I’m not screaming my guts out. But we live in a society where there are a number of people who say, ‘Hey, that’s what I want to hear. I want to hear the announcer go crazy.'”

Michaels clearly won’t go crazy, and he doesn’t think that’s an issue compared to some reactions from fans.

Al Michaels on being low-energy

Earlier this summer, Al Michaels directly responded to the idea that he was low energy on Thursday Night Football.

“Must have gotten a hundred texts from folks who were very happy to see me back on NBC. 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,” Michaels said.

“Look, sometimes I’ll take some ****. People say, ‘He didn’t get excited enough.’ What do you want me to do? Scream, holler, yell the game? That ain’t me. That ain’t [Joe] Buck, that ain’t [Jim] Nantz. I can’t pay attention to anti–social media. We live in a country with 330 million people. And if eight people rip you on social media, I’m going, ‘Huh?’ Now anybody sitting in a basement has a platform. You can’t let things like that distress you. I’ve been doing this for so long. And I wouldn’t be here at this point still doing a major package if I was doing it the wrong way.”