5<\/p>\n Plenty of viewers were left unimpressed by Michaels’ call of the Packers-Bears gameCredit: Getty<\/p>\n The stunning comeback made NFL history<\/a>, and was also the first time since 1941 that the Bears had beaten the Packers in a playoff game.<\/p>\n Michaels, 81, was watching for Prime Video alongside analyst Kirk Herbstreit, and split opinion on the broadcast once more.<\/p>\n The veteran sportscaster has faced calls to retire this season<\/a>, with a number of moments from the booth going viral in recent months.<\/p>\n He has been accused by some of lacking enthusiasm in the big moments, and that was once again leveled at Michaels on Saturday night.<\/p>\n MORE ON SPORTS BROADCASTINGHow did NFL fans react to Al Michaels call of Packers-Bears?<\/p>\n As he called Christian Watson’s early touchdown for the Packers — undoubtedly a big moment in the NFL<\/a> season — many argued the announcer didn’t do it justice.<\/p>\n “Rolling\u2026 throwing\u2026 caught,” he told the Prime viewers, as quarterback Jordan Love<\/a> found his receiver.<\/p>\n “And, does he get into the end zone? He does. Christian Watson crosses the goal line for a touchdown.”<\/p>\n Fans quickly took to social media to share their thoughts on the call, with one saying: “Christian Watson catches a TD on third down and Al Michaels sounds bored out of his MIND. SMH.”<\/p>\n Another wrote: “Al Michaels is making this game borderline unwatchable. Just throw in the towel man.”<\/p>\n The broadcaster then faced more criticism for his call in a critical part of the game, when Watson fumbled the ball and teammate Romeo Doubs recovered it in the end zone — and when the Bears completed their incredible comeback.<\/p>\n 5<\/p>\n Michaels has confirmed he will return to call TNF games in 2026Credit: Getty 5<\/p>\n The veteran broadcaster has been in the NFL booth for four decadesCredit: Getty<\/p>\n “Al Michaels\u2019 call on the Watson fumble into the end zone was the only evidence needed that his Amazon contract should have never been renewed,” one fan claimed.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s time for Al Michaels to hang it up, man. A team scores a touchdown in the playoffs and he announces it like he\u2019s saying good morning to a coworker in the hallway. I\u2019ve seen people more excited to find extra fries at the bottom of the bag,” a second said.<\/p>\n “Al Michaels called the most important game of my life with zero emotion, with an ending like that,” a third wrote.<\/p>\n “That game deserved better than Al Michaels,” a fourth said, and a fifth concluded: “Al Michaels being on the call for Bears-Packers is devastating, guy has completely lost his touch.”<\/p>\n While the Prime broadcaster took plenty of flak on Saturday night, other viewers argued any criticism was unfair, and that his Packers-Bears call was one of his best of the season.<\/p>\n Fans defend latest Al Michaels call for Prime Video<\/p>\n “I don’t get the Al Michaels hate. He’s a pretty easy listen. I think people just like complaining,” one wrote on X, jumping to his defense.<\/p>\n 5<\/p>\n While he was slammed by some fans, others jumped to defend Michaels’ broadcastCredit: Getty 5<\/p>\n Williams and the Bears gave him a lot to be excited about with a big comebackCredit: Getty<\/p>\n “He always said he saves it for big games. He’s not gonna go crazy for a Week 7 game,” another pointed out.<\/p>\n “Best game of his season called by him today, TBH,” a third said.<\/p>\n “You\u2019ll miss him when he\u2019s gone. Who will replace him? Nobody,” a fourth claimed.<\/p>\n The Packers-Bears game was the one and only playoff clash that will be broadcast on Prime this season.<\/p>\n NFL’s Greatest……<\/p>\n Ranking the top 10……<\/p>\n However, ahead of that clash, Michaels confirmed he will be returning<\/a> to the streamer’s Thursday Night Football coverage in 2026.<\/p>\n Al Michaels confirms TNF decision for 2026<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, I feel great,\u201d he said, after Prime Video management confirmed his return.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone at Amazon has been fantastic and I love working with this group.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve been looking at this year one year at a time and as long as I feel I\u2019m at the top of my game, I\u2019d like to continue.”<\/p>\n In the eyes of some fans, Michaels is no longer at the ‘top’ of his game. Regardless, he will continue calling games in 2026.<\/p>\n CBS, Fox, ESPN and NBC will broadcast the rest of the playoffs in the coming weeks, with the latter airing Super Bowl LX on February 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like Michaels, some broadcasters who work for those networks have come in for criticism in recent days too. <\/p>\n In Saturday\u2019s NFC playoff opener between the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers, legendary tight end Greg Olsen was slammed for his ‘bias,’<\/a> with some fans muting the broadcast.<\/p>\n Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n Tony Romo was also roasted by some fans online 24 hours later, as he made a number of ‘weird noises’ while calling the Buffalo Bills’ win against the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>. <\/p>\n Stay up to date with the latest from the NFL across all platforms – follow our dedicated\u00a0talkSPORT USA Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and subscribe to our\u00a0talkSPORT USA YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL announcer Al Michaels faced the wrath of fans as he delivered an ‘underwhelming’ call for the playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[17992,98058,98059,98062,98056,98057,98061,98064,97174,1035,1036,391,7,345,1724,10667,98063,6,835,80899,98060,84,95648,98065,15739,98068,505,16165,98066,98067],"class_list":{"0":"post-673345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-al-michaels","9":"tag-al-michaels-bears-packers","10":"tag-al-michaels-call","11":"tag-al-michaels-kirk-herbstreit","12":"tag-bears-comeback-nfl","13":"tag-bears-comeback-vs-packers","14":"tag-bears-packers-prime-video","15":"tag-bears-touchdowns","16":"tag-bears-vs-packers","17":"tag-ben-johnson","18":"tag-caleb-williams","19":"tag-chicago-bears","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-green-bay-packers","22":"tag-jordan-love","23":"tag-kirk-herbstreit","24":"tag-nfc-wild-card-weekend","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-nfl-news","27":"tag-nfl-playoff-bracket","28":"tag-nfl-playoff-broadcast-schedule","29":"tag-nfl-playoffs","30":"tag-nfl-wild-card-weekend","31":"tag-packers-touchdowns","32":"tag-prime-video","33":"tag-prime-video-tnf","34":"tag-super-bowl","35":"tag-super-bowl-lx","36":"tag-tnf-nfl","37":"tag-will-al-michaels-return-to-tnf"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kirk](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kirk-herbstreit-al-michaels-amazon-1050811332.jpg\")
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