Al Michaels has forgotten more about football than 99% of fans will ever know.
But that doesn’t stop social media trolls from targeting the broadcasting legend during Amazon Prime Video’s exclusive broadcast of “Thursday Night Football” between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. I couldn’t.
This was the second week in a row that Michaels was called for what should have been considered a really small mistake.
During the Philadelphia Eagles’ 34-28 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 2, he mistakenly referred to Lincoln Financial Field, which was the Bird’s Nest until 2003, as Veterans Stadium.
On Thursday, Michaels and analyst Kirk Herbstreit talked about the Super Bowl wins between the Giants and 49ers and incorrectly said both teams had won four Lombardi Trophies.
“Think about the 49ers. This is a team that won four Super Bowls, Bill Walsh won twice and George Seifert won twice.”
The 49ers actually had five teams, winning three with Walsh, and Michaels corrected the mistake made during the next commercial break.
But by then, Twitter was buzzing with the 78-year-old Michaels. “We lost his fastball.”
“Four Super Bowls? Four? Al Michaels needs to retire.” someone tweeted.
Posted by another X user“Al needs to call it a career before it gets too bad.”
“Michaels has been warned. He’s had a great career. It’s over. It’s time for intermittent features.” Another X user concluded:.
But Michaels rallied a lot of people to his defense during the 49ers’ 30-12 win over the Giants.
“It’s a live broadcast. He made a mistake and corrected himself.” 1 X user tweeted.
Another person gave Michaels’ more passionate defense: “He made a mistake… Everyone has made a mistake once or twice in their life. So please people ‘lighten up’.”
This is Michaels’ second season on Amazon Prime Video called “Thursday Night Football.”
Previously, he was the voice of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” for 16 years and earlier in his career hosted “Monday Night Football” for 20 years.
No doubt the social media police will be patrolling Michaels when the Detroit Lions visit the Green Bay Packers next week. Week 3 of “Thursday Night Football.”
