Play-by-play man Al Michaels has officially announced that he will join NBC in 2006 to broadcast the peacock network's new Sunday night football package. Michaels will stay with color man John Madden who has been his partner on ABC since 2002.
NBC actually made a 'trade' with ABC/Disney to secure the rights to Michael's services. In exchange for letting Michaels out of his ABC contract, NBC agreed to sell Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups to ESPN and also granted the all sports cable network increased usage rights to highlights from the Winter Olympic games from Turin, Italy. NBC also sold the use of 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit' to The Walt Disney Co. Oswald was a character created by Walt Disney and appeared in silent animated films in 1927 and 1928. All that was missing was the proverbial announcer to be named later.
Michaels has been at ABC since 1976 and has called play-by-play for Monday Night Football since 1986.
'I began to realize more and more how much I was going to miss being with those people,' Michaels said Thursday on a conference call. 'That's my family, that's my broadcasting family.'
ABC has replaced Michaels as play-by-play for NBA broadcasts this year with Mike Breen.
