Al Michaels: Prime Video was ‘stunned’ when NFL gave them Packers-Bears Wild Card game

Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports, USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect Al Michaels is pretty happy with the Thursday Night Football schedule this year. The legendary announcer has been the voice of TNF since Amazon’s Prime Video took over the weekly staple, and he’s been very upfront about the quality of the games he’s gotten to call in that time. The 81-year-old, who infamously used to compare some of the games on Prime’s TNF slate to selling a used car (he even cited a “20-year-old Mazda” once) , once said that Amazon’s game schedule “ was a little leaky ,” and that he’d had to call a “ farcical ” game or two.

However, the NFL started doing Prime some solids the last few seasons, and Michaels has been quick to applaud the quality of games on his calendar. Even at his age, the broadcaster sussed out that the league was well aware of the quickly growing value of streaming service audiences . The NFL released its 2026 schedule this past week , and the TNF slate is once again very strong, featuring Lions-Bills, Seahawks-Broncos, Patriots-Bears, and Chiefs-Rams, as well as several divisional matchups.

Michaels expressed his appreciation for the quality of the games during an appearance on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast . NEW PODCAST: The guest is Al Michaels. He talks about @NFLonPrime ‘s schedule — including opening up the @BuffaloBills new stadium, his future calling games and hanging out with Pete Rose and Johnny Bench at @CanadiensMTL games.

TO LISTEN: https://t. co/ldSOoKDIvD — Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) May 16, 2026 “The league’s been very, very good to us as the years have progressed here,” Michaels told Deitsch. “I mean, the first year, getting started, the games weren’t particularly compelling.