Even a seasoned broadcaster like Al Michaels can be caught off guard. The legendary NFL announcer, now the voice of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, admitted he was completely shocked by one recent playoff scheduling decision from the league.
Speaking with Richard Deitsch, Michaels recalled the moment last season when the NFL assigned the Wild Card matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears to Amazon Prime. It was a game that drew 32 million viewers and became a defining moment for the streaming platform.
“We were stunned when they gave us Green Bay-Chicago,” Michaels said. “There was a seminal moment last year in terms of how the league felt about Prime, when there were six Wild Card games at the end of the season, and they didn’t apportion them until the final whistle on Sunday. Our whole group gathered, and we said, you know what, they’ll probably give us the third or fourth best game.”
Michaels and his broadcast partner, Kirk Herbstreit, had prepared for a less glamorous assignment. The announcer figured the top-tier matchup—Packers vs. Bears—would go to a traditional network like Fox or CBS. He even joked with Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks about it.
“I think I kidded Eric Shanks about it, too,” Michaels said. “I said, ‘You guys were stunned over at Fox.’ He said, ‘We were.’ I said, ‘You can’t do every Green Bay-Chicago game, you know.’ And then we did 32 million people in the game, it was phenomenal.”
The decision marked a turning point for Amazon Prime’s NFL coverage. When the streaming service first launched its Thursday night package, the games were often less compelling. But as the schedule has evolved, the league has entrusted Prime with more high-stakes matchups.
“The league’s been very, very good to us as the years have progressed here,” Michaels told Deitsch. “I mean, the first year, getting started, the games weren’t particularly compelling. But the schedule now has gotten better and better and better.”
This shift reflects a broader trend in sports broadcasting, where streaming platforms are increasingly landing premium content. The NFL’s willingness to put a marquee playoff game on Prime signals that the league sees digital platforms as equal partners to traditional TV networks.
Michaels, who spent decades calling Sunday Night Football for NBC, has embraced the change. He’s seen firsthand how the league has prioritized Amazon Prime’s audience, and he’s grateful for the opportunity to call games that matter.
For fans, the move also highlights the ongoing evolution of how football is consumed. With more big games moving to streaming, viewers are adapting to a world where the biggest moments aren’t always on cable. And if the Packers-Bears playoff game is any indication, the future of NFL broadcasting is already here.
As the NFL continues to tweak its schedule, critics have raised questions about fairness. Some have even suggested that the league quietly punished the Broncos with a brutal early schedule, while others have debated the merits of college football playoff expansion. But for Michaels, the Packers-Bears assignment was a welcome surprise—and a sign that Amazon Prime has arrived as a major player in NFL coverage.
