Al Michaels Was 'Stunned' By NFL Playoff Schedule Decision

Legendary NFL announcer Al Michaels doesn't get surprised by the league's scheduling decisions very often. But he was during the playoffs.

Michaels, the longtime voice of NBC's "Sunday Night Football," has been with Amazon Prime for the past couple of seasons. Michaels calls the Thursday Night Football games with his coworker, Kirk Herbstreit.

The longtime NFL announcer and the longtime college football star got a surprise playoff game in January. Meanwhile, he was happy with their schedule for 2026.

"The league's been very, very good to us as the years have progressed here," Michaels told Richard Deitsch. "I mean, the first year, getting started, the games weren't particularly compelling. But the schedule now has gotten better and better and better."

Last year, Amazon Prime got the big Packers vs. Bears Wild Card playoff game. That's something that "stunned" Michaels.

Michaels couldn't believe that they landed that one.

Amazon Prime announcer stunned by the decision

He couldn't believe it.

"There was a seminal moment last year in terms of how the league felt about Prime, when there were six Wild Card games at the end of the season, and they didn't apportion them until the final whistle on Sunday," he said. "Our whole group gathered, and we said, you know what, they'll probably give us the third or fourth best game.

"We knew the best game, number one, Green Bay-Chicago, we weren't going to get it. San Francisco-Philadelphia, doubtful. So we would probably wind up with the- I think Jacksonville played Buffalo, the Rams were playing Carolina. I can't remember what the other game was, but we were stunned when they gave us Green Bay-Chicago.

"I think I kidded [Fox Sports CEO] Eric Shanks about it, too. I said, ‘You guys were stunned over at Fox.' He said, ‘We were.' I said, ‘You can't do every Green Bay-Chicago game, you know.' And then we did 32 million people in the game, it was phenomenal."

The NFL has been putting more and more big games on Amazon Prime - and clearly, Michaels is a fan.

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This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 7:04 AM.