Al Michaels, the veteran sportscaster who has called all four major sports during a half-century career also highlighted by the emotional finish of the Miracle on Ice in 1980, tied Pat Summerall's record Thursday night, October 19, 2023, with his 737th known national telecast of a National Football League regular-season or postseason game.
The news was highlighted by Un/Necessary Sports Research, an online publication whose catalog spans more than 56,000 telecasts of baseball, football, hockey and basketball and includes nearly 150,000 announcer credits. The information has been parsed from the 506 Sports forums and archive since 2013.
Michaels, 78, becomes the fifth person to hold the top spot on the list of NFL announcers since 1950, also following in the footsteps of Red Grange, Jim Gibbons, Ray Scott and Curt Gowdy. Summerall took the mantle from Gowdy with his 330th telecast on Nov. 21, 1982.
The Brooklyn native reached the milestone with a Jaguars-Saints game in the Thursday Night Football package aired on Amazon Prime Video and simulcast on Twitch. Kirk Herbstreit handled color commentary with sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung. The same trio is slated to call the Buccaneers-Bills game next Thursday in which Michaels will pass Summerall outright/
Michaels made his NFL debut for NBC's coverage of the American Football Conference in 1971 while also serving as the radio announcer for the Cincinnati Reds. He jumped to CBS in 1975 before beginning a three-decade tenure at ABC Sports in 1977.
In 1986, Michaels succeeded Frank Gifford as the play-by-play voice behind Monday Night Football, where he would call 366 games including six Super Bowls. As the NFL reshuffled its broadcast contracts in 2006, Michaels and longtime partner John Madden moved to NBC and the Sunday Night Football package: there, Michaels worked four more seasons with Madden and 13 more (through 2021) alongside Cris Collinsworth, including another five Super Bowls. The current Thursday-night deal began in 2022 after Michaels received emeritus status at NBC Sports.
He has been the NFL's most prolific play-by-play announcer since passing Don Criqui with Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1, 2015.
All told, Michaels' NFL career includes 19 color-commentary partners and 19 sideline reporters, with Dan Fouts the only person to appear on both lists. Michaels has worked 263 games alongside Cris Collinsworth, 239 with Michele Tafoya, 214 next to Gifford, 206 with Dan Dierdorf and 128 partnering Madden. Thursday marks Michaels' 22nd game with Hartung and 21st with Herbstreit.
A complete list of Michaels' NFL partners and teams called appears at the foot of this release.
Following a 10-year NFL career that crossed three teams and included a 1952 league championship with the Detroit Lions, Summerall joined CBS Sports in 1962. After 12 full seasons as a color commentator, he shifted to play-by-play in 1974. Summerall racked up 535 play-by-play credits, 199 games as the color man and 3 field-reporter appearances before retiring from Fox's lead crew in 2002; his final NFL appearances came in 2007 and he died on April 16, 2013.
Summerall's partners included Madden for 401 games and Tom Brookshier for 108.
Across the four major professional sports, Michaels has called 1,039 games through Thursday night. His championship work includes nine World Series (eight for ABC and one split between NBC television and radio) and two NBA Finals along with a resume of Olympic coverage.
Date listed is that of breaking tie with previous holder
- Dennis James by default on Sept. 19, 1946
- Bob Stanton — Dec. 1, 1946
- Arthur Daley — Oct. 17, 1948
- Red Grange — Dec. 11, 1949
- Jim Gibbons — Oct. 16, 1966
- Ray Scott — Nov. 29, 1970
- Curt Gowdy — Oct. 24, 1976
- Pat Summerall — Nov. 21, 1982
- Al Michaels — Oct. 26, 2023 (projected)
- Cowboys — 96
- Eagles — 79
- Steelers — 77
- Packers — 72
- Broncos — 68
- 49ers — 67
- Giants — 67
- Patriots — 67
- Bears — 61
- Chiefs — 57
- Colts — 54
- Vikings — 51
- Redskins — 50
- Dolphins — 49
- Rams — 48
- Raiders — 47
- Seahawks — 43
- Saints — 40
- Titans — 36
- Jets — 35
- Bills — 33
- Chargers — 33
- Falcons — 31
- Ravens — 29
- Bengals — 26
- Lions — 25
- Buccaneers — 22
- Browns — 21
- Cardinals — 18
- Panthers — 16
- Jaguars — 15
- AFC (Pro Bowl) — 14
- NFC (Pro Bowl) — 14
- Texans — 11
- Team Rice (Pro Bowl) — 1
- Team Sanders (Pro Bowl) — 1
- Cris Collinsworth — 263
- Michele Tafoya — 239
- Frank Gifford — 214
- Dan Dierdorf — 206
- John Madden — 128
- Andrea Kremer — 94
- Lynn Swann — 82
- Melissa Stark — 58
- Lesley Visser — 44
- Dan Fouts — 41
- Boomer Esiason — 39
- Dennis Miller — 38
- Eric Dickerson — 38
- Kaylee Hartung — 22
- Kirk Herbstreit — 21
- Lisa Guerrero — 18
- Sam Ryan — 14
- Mike Haffner — 8
- Heather Cox — 8
- Wayne Walker — 7
- Dave Kocourek — 5
- Kathryn Tappen — 4
- Sam DeLuca — 3
- Hank Stram — 3
- Johnny Morris — 2
- Fran Tarkenton — 2
- Tim Brant — 2
- Doug Flutie — 2
- Tim Van Galder — 1
- Johnny Unitas — 1
- Tony Dungy — 1
- Howard Cosell — 1
- Bob Griese — 1
- Russ Francis — 1
- Suzy Kolber — 1
- Alex Flanagan — 1
- Tiki Barber — 1
