Al Michaels: Exit Stage Left.

The long slow goodbye

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The noise around Al Michaels right now mostly concerns the games he’ll be missing, following the New York Post’s report last month that NBC has decided not to include Michaels in its NFL playoff coverage this year. Fair enough: The network’s decision is a watermark of sorts, separating Michaels from post-season work in a league in which he has called a record-tying 11 Super Bowls.

It’s hard to quietly separate. Michaels clearly wanted to continue doing playoff work, and his agreement with Amazon as the voice of its Thursday Night Football production allows him to do so for NBC in an emeritus status. He appeared to be caught off-guard by NBC’s decision to move on from him, at one point telling the Post’s Andrew Marchand, “It’s in my deal. Where are you hearing that from? That’s part of my deal. Are you hearing something that I’m not hearing?”