Al Michals is leaving ABC TV Sports. He's been there for 30 years! I've learned how important continuity is in broadcasting. When you have someone with the talent of Al Michaels and you (ABC) and he (Al Michaels) have invested 30 years in each other, why? Why fix something that ain't broken? Whatever they paid Michaels, he was worth it. But, things are changing. Monday Night Football is moving to ESPN and Sunday Night Football is moving to NBC. Some say that Al Michaels will be doing play by play with John Madden on Sunday Nights at the peacock. NBC should mark their re-entry to the NFL with some marquis names in the booth!
Here are some facts on Al Michaels that I shamelessly copied from a fine site on the internet:
Al Michaels was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, California where he was a football and baseball player. Later, Michaels went on to study radio and television (major) and journalism (minor) at Arizona State University.
In 1968, Michaels began broadcasting the baseball games of the Hawaii Islanders. During this time, he also called the play-by-play for the University of Hawaii Rainbow men's football and basketball games. He later received the honor of "Sportscaster of the Year".
In 1971, he moved to Cincinnati and became the number one broadcaster for the Reds. Then, in 1974, he repeated that feat, this time with the San Francisco Giants.
Michaels joined ABC Sports full time in January of 1977 and has covered many events including NCAA Football, NHL Hockey, the Olympic Games and ABC's Wide World of Sports, Major League Baseball and currently as the play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football.
