After calling the Super Bowl, NBC’s Al Michaels could end up at Amazon or ESPN

It’s the worst-kept secret heading into the Super Bowl: Sunday night will very likely be Al Michael’s final NFL broadcast as NBC’s lead football announcer.

It’s an odd dance for NBC, to say the least. Michaels is one of the most widely respected announcers in the history of broadcasting, and at 77 he’s still at the top of his game, as sharp and instructive as he’s ever been in his 36-year run calling NFL games. He’ll be calling a record 11th Super Bowl Sunday night, tying him with the late Pat Summerall.

But one thing is clear — Michaels isn’t planning on hanging up his headset after calling Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I love what I do,” Michaels said in a conference call earlier this week. “I feel great and I’m not ready for any rocking chair or golf. I get to play enough golf, believe me.”

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NBC hired Mike Tirico away from ESPN back in 2016 to eventually become the play-by-play announcer on Sunday Night Football, and that plan appears ready to happen next season. Tirico will move from the studio to the booth to call games alongside Michaels’ current broadcast partner, Cris Collinsworth, who has two years remaining on his contract.

Next year, 15 Thursday night NFL games will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime (and air locally in the teams’ home markets), with longtime Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli overseeing the broadcast. Naturally, Amazon has been pursing Michaels to become its lead play-by-play voice, willing to pay upwards of $11 million a year, according to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand. That deal would also allow Michaels to call a few NBC games next season, including one playoff game.

“I don’t know what the future will hold, but after this game is over, I’ve got some very close friends and guys who really understand the business inside and out, and we’ll talk about what’s out there and what I might want to do,” Michaels said.

Amazon would need a strong broadcast partner to pair with Michaels, someone who would bring instant credibility to the tech giant’s NFL package. Could that end up being Troy Aikman?

The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer’s contract expired with Fox after calling the NFC championship game last month, and Aikman hasn’t been shy about the possibility of joining Amazon.

“There are conversations that are taking place,” Aikman told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch on his Sports Media podcast. “I don’t know if I’m going to be working for Fox. I don’t know if I’m going to be working for Fox and Amazon. I don’t know if I’m going to be working for Amazon. … I’m not real sure how this thing’s going to look when it’s all said and done.”

It seems unlikely that Aikman would continue calling Thursday Night Football games for Amazon unless he came to a deal to also remain on Fox, where he and Joe Buck have called games together for the past 20 years. Fox will also broadcast the Super Bowl in 2023 and 2025, so it remains hard to see Aikman walking away simply for more money.

“When I first did Thursday nights, I thought it was something that I would do for one year and move on. Here we are four years later,” Aikman said. “It’s feasible, it’s viable, but it is a lot.”

Amazon isn’t the only one ready to pursue Michaels. According to the New York Post, ESPN could get in the mix to acquire Michaels for its Monday Night Football booth, which currently features Steve Levy, Bob Griese, and Louis Riddick. Griese’s contract is scheduled to expire, and Riddick — a Bucks County native and former Eagles scout and front office executive — is a candidate for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ vacant general manager position. One thing in ESPN’s favor — it will broadcast the Super Bowl in 2027, simulcasting it on ABC.

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The Super Bowl will also be the final NFL game for sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who is moving on to other opportunities after spending 11 years with NBC on Sunday Night Football. Tafoya is expected to be replaced by Kathryn Tappen, who will also be part of NBC’s Super Bowl coverage.

Unlike Michaels, Tafoya isn’t being pushed out because of any NBC succession plan. Nor is it because of a much-talked-about guest hosting spot back in November on The View, where she downplayed the severity of COVID-19, criticized critical race theory, and suggested Colin Kaepernick had himself to blame for not being on an NFL roster. (NBC called claims she was being forced off the air for her political views “blatantly false.”)

Tafoya said last month she wanted to pivot her career to start a new chapter and pursue opportunities that were “really meaningful” to her, though she hasn’t specified what that might be.

“We were all talking about how you get to a certain point, and you’ve chased what you wanted to chase, a particular arena in your life, and there are other things you want to chase, and that’s how I feel, and I feel strongly about that,” Tafoya said on a conference call this week.

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Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the Super Bowl on NBC Sunday:

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