The NFL has backtracked and is now letting Mike Tirico broadcast two Thursday night games this year. Pro Football Talk reports Tirico and Doug Flutie will call a couple of games that will air on the NFL Network only.
NBC hired the former ESPN anchor with the intention of using him on its Thursday night broadcasts this year. The NFL nixed those plans initially.
The league reportedly wanted Michaels and Cris 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 its Thursday night 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 left Tirico out of the picture for NFL games, until now.
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Tirico will also host Football Night in America on Sundays on NBC.