It’s official—Al Michaels is headed to Amazon to become the new voice of Thursday Night Football, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. Terms of the deal aren’t available yet, though Michaels’ agreement with Amazon is expected to be similar in value to the five-year, $75-million contract Joe Buck signed upon joining ESPN last week. Michaels will be joined in the booth by Kirk Herbstreit, who, in addition to his new Thursday night responsibilities, will continue to serve as ESPN’s lead college football analyst.
Michaels, whose contract with NBC expired after last month’s Super Bowl, had been in negotiations with Amazon for weeks, but waited for ESPN to hire Buck before making a decision final. Best known for his iconic, “Do you believe in miracles?” call after the United States’ hockey team stunned the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, Michaels had been at NBC since 2006, calling five Super Bowls (XLIII, XLVI, XLIX, LII and LVI) over that span.
It’s been a whirlwind month in sports media with legendary broadcasters Michaels, Buck and Troy Aikman all defecting to rival networks. While NBC has a clear succession plan in place—Mike Tirico will take the baton from Michaels as the new play-by-play voice of Sunday Night Football—Fox is still weighing its options, though Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen are seen as the frontrunners to replace Buck and Aikman, respectively.
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