Amazon Prime’s Al Michaels BLASTS critics of his non-enthusiastic announcing style on Thursday Night Football: ”What do you want me to do?’

Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels has hit back at critics of his announcing style and lack of enthusiasm calling games, while speaking with Sports Business Journal.

The 78-year-old Michaels is set to enter his second season calling ‘Thursday Night Football,’ along with Kirk Herbstreit for Amazon Prime.

‘Look, sometimes I’ll take some s–t,’ Michaels said.

‘People say, ‘He didn’t get excited enough.’ What do you want me to do? Scream, holler, yell the game? That ain’t me. That ain’t [Joe] Buck, that ain’t [Jim] Nantz.’ 

‘I can’t pay attention to anti-social media. We live in a country with 330 million people. And if eight people rip you on social media, I’m going, ‘huh?’

Michaels is will be back in the booth for Thursday Night Football with Kirk Herbstreit this year

This year’s TNF schedule is set to feature several games that should be exciting from last year

‘Now anybody sitting in a basement has a platform.’ Michaels continued.

‘You can’t let things like that distress you. I’ve been doing this for so long. And I wouldn’t be here at this point still doing a major package if I was doing it the wrong way.’ 

Michaels had also previously criticized the slate of games that were featured TNF on Amazon.

‘I think I’m to the point in my life and career, having watched sports since I was 6 years old, I feel what the crowd feels,’ Michaels said.

‘The Denver-Indianapolis game [in] Week 4 was a dreadful game. No other way to describe it. No touchdowns.’

‘In fact, at one point during the game, I said to [analyst] Kirk [Herbstreit], ‘Is it possible this game could be so bad that it’s actually good?’ He’d never heard that from a partner and went, ‘No!’ 

The lack of quality displayed during a large portion of Thursday night’s games, which had also been complained about during the season likely led to any lack of enthusiasm while calling the action.

Several games on this season’s Amazon schedule are set to be more exciting -at least on paper- such as the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins playing in the NFL’s first-ever game on Black Friday, the New York Giants playing the San Francisco 49ers.