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Al Michaels Thinks the NFL Gave Amazon a Much Better ‘TNF’ List
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Al Michaels Thinks the NFL Gave Amazon a Much Better ‘TNF’ List

Al Michaels went from complaining about the product the NFL gave to Amazon for “Thursday Night Football” two years ago to raving about this season’s schedule.

The “TNF” package on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service kicks off Thursday when the Dolphins host the Bills in a matchup between AFC East rivals that both have plausible Super Bowl aspirations.

In a recent conversation with The Post, Michaels, who along with Kirk Herbstreit goes by “TNF,” floated the theory that the NFL has improved the quality of its schedule this year as the league continues to expand its wings with streaming.

Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit kick off their third season of ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Amazon’s Prime Video. Amazon

“In the beginning, the first year, my displeasure wasn’t so much with the actual schedule, it was with the way the games were going. We had that Indianapolis-Denver game and a Washington-Chicago game and those were not games that NFL Films would ever remember,” Michaels said.

“Last year was significantly better, and this year is even better than that — by far the best of all, and I think a lot of it has to do with where the business is right now. Streaming is becoming more and more important.”

Last season, NBC’s NFL Peacock carried the Dolphins-Chiefs game for the streaming-only playoff game, Michaels noted. It was undoubtedly the biggest game of the weekend, given the stars Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill.

This season, in addition to the Black Friday Raiders-Chiefs game on November 29, Amazon will also play its first playoff game, in the wildcard round on January 11 or 12.

Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit at the Amazon booth on November 9, 2023. Getty Images

Other regular season games on Prime Video include Cowboys-Giants, Texans-Jets, Packers-Lions, Bengals-Ravens, and Rams-49ers.

Twelve of the 17 games are divisional games. Even games that look like failures on paper, like Saints-Broncos, have storylines like Sean Payton returning to New Orleans.

“The league now understands that this is the direction the company is going,” Michaels said. “How quickly it gets there, I don’t know.”

Al Michaels is excited about Amazon’s Thursday night schedule this season. Getty Images

He pointed out that Netflix’s double Christmas match is another sign that the league wants to broadcast the matches exclusively via streaming platforms.

“The chart is up for streaming, and I don’t want to say down for linear, because the NFL is so powerful right now and linear is still very, very important, but there are a lot of eggs in the streaming basket right now,” Michaels said.

Michaels also believes the strong schedule is partly due to the NFL now having confidence in Amazon’s ability to produce games at a high level.

Josh Allen and the Bills take on the Dolphins in the first game of the season for Amazon. Getty Images

Michaels revealed that two NBA owners called him and told him that Amazon’s game and studio production of “TNF” was a factor in their decision to move from TNT to Prime Video.

(He acknowledged that Amazon’s reported $1.8 billion annual bid was also important.)

Michaels’ contract with Amazon expires after this season, and he candidly spoke to The Post about how he sees his future.

“The reality is I’ve trained myself to live in the present. I’ve done that for a long time. I don’t like going back in time. People like hearing stories about the past — I’m bored with it,” Michaels said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Nobody knows. Right now I feel great. I’m looking forward to the season starting. I haven’t made a decision yet about what’s going to happen in the future. I guess somewhere along the year I’ll feel better about what it’s like. But I feel like if I can live up to the standard that I expect of myself, I want to keep going. If I can’t, I have to think about it differently. I don’t want to be, as Howard Cosell used to say, ‘a shadow of your former self.'”