Sorry Mike Tirico, but the NFL doesn't think you're prime time material. Thursday night prime time material, that is.
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The league reportedly made NBC agree to use broadcaster Al Michaels to call play-by-play for Thursday night games this season. The network outbid CBS for the rights to air five games this season and signed Tirico last April with the hopes to use the veteran broadcaster for Thursday games.
Tirico called Monday night games on ESPN for a decade and NBC figured the league would have no problem allowing the broadcaster to do Thursday games.
But the NFL forbid it. The league wants Michaels and Chris Collinsworth, who broadcast Sunday night games each week, to do Thursday games on NBC as well. Why? Consistency, apparently.
The league liked that CBS used its top broadcast team of Phil Simms and Jim Nantz for Thursday game. The two normally broadcast CBS' best game every Sunday and marquee playoff games. So the NFL wanted NBC to agree to use its normal No. 1 crew for Thursday games as well, which leaves Tirico out of the picture for NFL games.
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