NFL fans have urged veteran announcer Al Michaels, 81, to retire from Thursday Night Football after making yet another embarrassing on-air blunder.
The 81-year-old was back on duty alongside commentary partner Kirk Herbstreit for the Week 9 matchup between the Ravens and Jaguars when the incident occurred.
During the Jaguars’ first offensive possession of the game, Michaels attempted to introduce Jacksonville signal-caller Trevor Lawrence as he entered the field.
However, as he did so, he made a glaring mistake in claiming that Lawrence had been the first overall pick in 2001 – rather than in 2021.
Michaels, who will turn 82 on Thursday Night Football next week, boldly declared: ‘Back in 2001, Trevor Lawrence was your number one overall draft pick.’
The moment quickly went viral on social media, with users wasting no time in ripping into the veteran announcer over his blunder.
NFL fans have urged veteran announcer Al Michaels, 81, to retire from Thursday Night Football
Taking to X, one fan wrote: ‘He’s so washed plz [please] retire and enjoy the rest of your life legend.’
Similarly, another user said: ‘Al should have retired 5 years ago. He’s bored.’
‘Yeah, it’s time to hang it up Al Michaels,’ another user on the platform wrote.
The embarrassing moment comes less than a month after Michaels provided an update on his future in the broadcast booth amid growing scrutiny.
‘Well, either the people that I work for will tell me, or I’ll know myself, a combination,’ Michaels said on The Dan Patrick Show.
‘Let’s put it this way. The folks at Amazon and Prime have been fantastic. Fantastic to me.’
To make matters worse, later in the game Michaels began telling a ‘bedtime story’ about Tom Coughlin and the Jaguars, which lasted nearly four minutes.
Once his monologue ended, Michaels said: ‘Anyway, there’s your bedtime story. Interrupted by an interception, but apart from that.’
Michaels is still in the Amazon Prime Video booth leading Thursday Night Football coverage
Over the past two years, Amazon has checked in with him at the end of the season to gauge his interest in returning.
‘If they come to me and say, you know, it’s time for us to move on.’ he continued. ‘You guys have been fantastic. You’ve been great.
‘I’ve done the NFL for 41 years, which is half my life. Love it. But you know what? At a certain time, it’s time.
‘And if they feel it’s time, great. And if I feel it’s time, I’ll know it. And I’ll say, ‘You know what? Thanks for the memories.”
Michaels has worked on sports network television since 1971 and famously called the ‘Miracle on Ice’ in the 1980 Winter Olympics.
He has been calling NFL games play-by-play to a national audience since 1986, when he started on ABC Monday Night Football.
He joined NBC in 2006 then made the move to Amazon Prime Video when they acquired the rights to Thursday Night Football in 2022.
