Mike Tirico will handle all of NBC’s pay-by-play responsibilities for the next three games, replacing Al Michaels, who will get some time off around the Thanksgiving holiday.
NBC announced that Tirico will handle play-by-play for Green Bay-Washington this Sunday, Pittsburgh-Indianapolis on Thanksgiving night and Kansas City-Denver next Sunday.
There’s been much speculation about what role Tirico would play on NBC’s prime time NFL broadcasts, and at first it was widely assumed that Tirico would handle Thursday nights to give the 72-year-old Michaels a lighter workload. But the NFL announced that its deal with NBC and CBS required both networks to use their No. 1 Sunday broadcast team as the Thursday night team as well.
However, Tirico will become the No. 1 Sunday announcer for the next two Sundays. Tirico will also join Collinsworth for Giants-Eagles on Thursday, December 22. As was previously announced, Tirico and Doug Flutie will call the two late-season NFL Network-only games that NBC Sports will produce. Michaels will call the remaining games, including NBC’s two playoff games.
“With the additional games on our schedule this season, it’s nice to have a bye week,” Michaels said in a statement released by NBC. “We’re lucky to have someone of Mike’s caliber to step in with Cris, Michele and the rest of the team.”
Tirico called Monday Night Football on ESPN for the last 10 years before jumping to NBC this year. Sunday night will mark his first NFL game for NBC.