Al Michaels Was Not a Fan of the Rams’ P.A. Announcer
1. Legendary play-by-play man Al Michaels has had to deal with a rough schedule during Amazon Prime’s first year airing Thursday Night Football, and he hasn't been shy about expressing his frustrations.
The latest TNF game featured another dud matchup with the 5–7 Raiders facing the 3–9 Rams. The game was played at SoFi Stadium, where Los Angeles rarely has a home field advantage. Throughout the season, the stadium has been so filled with the sounds of opposing fans that the Rams have had to use a silent count. At home!
So with the Raiders in town, Michaels and analyst Kirk Herbstreit speculated at one point about which team had more fans in the building.
“It’s hard to tell where the crowd is right now,” said Michaels. “I think mainly Raiders a little bit, but you have a P.A. announcer here who incessantly screams, ‘WHOSE HOUSE?’”
Herbstreit interjected, “You love it.”
“I hate it,” snapped Michaels.
“He wants them to say, ‘Rams’ house,’” continued Michaels, “but as far as the Raiders are concerned, well, this is kinda like their Airbnb.”
Viewers seemed to get a kick out Michaels’s strong dislike for the P.A. announcer.
2. I understand that last night was basically a fairytale for Baker Mayfield. Several hours later, it’s still hard to fathom what Mayfield did in bringing the Rams back from a deficit to pull off a wild win after being with the team for two days. BUT PLEASE STOP DOING THIS, BAKER!
3. What a stat.
4. Denver’s Jamal Murray drained a three with .9 seconds remaining to give his team a 121–120 win against Portland last night.
Naturally, the Nuggets’ TV call was electric.
Just as, if not more, amusing was how un-electric the Portland TV call was.
5. This was good use of Marshawn Lynch on Amazon Prime’s pregame show last night.
6. A brand new SI Media Podcast dropped this morning and this week’s guest is The Athletic’s sports media reporter, Richard Deitsch. Topics covered include:
- Fox's World Cup coverage
- Jon Heyman whiffing on Aaron Judge
- Adam Schefter doing PR for Deshaun Watson
- Is TNF on Amazon a success?
- Athletes as podcasters
- Good Morning America scandal
- ManningCast
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Today is the fourth anniversary of this play.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
