Legendary Broadcaster Al Michaels On The Patriots And His Most Memorable Calls

In today's episode of Season Ticket, The Boston Globe's Chris Gasper (@cgasper) welcomes legendary broadcaster Al Michaels. They talk about the upcoming Super Bowl rematch between the Patriots and the Falcons on Sunday Night Football and the Patriots season so far. Then they dig into Michaels' long career, including his most memorable calls, his preparation before games, and a little-known acting appearance he once made on a famous television show.

Guests

On Tom Brady's competitiveness

Al Michaels: Look, you've seen competitors and he's right at the top of the list. I've actually had a chance to play golf with him a couple of times and he is unbelievably competitive. He's also very technical. I've watched him take golf lessons and he wants to know everything. If the right elbow is supposed to be at a 43-degree angle, he wants to make sure he gets it to 43. I've never seen anything like it! He's astonishing and, obviously, is one of the great, great, greats of all-time in any sport.

"You do get a little jealous in situations like that."

On whether he was jealous he didn't call Superbowl LI, when the Patriots mounted the largest comeback in Superbowl history.

Al Michaels: Here's the 100% truth. I'm sitting [at home] watching the game and 43 minutes into the game I'm thinking, "Man, I'm glad this is Fox's year to cover this." Poor Joe Buck and Troy Aikman had the Denver-Seattle [Super Bowl] rout three years prior. So they had a blowout in their last Super Bowl...these poor guys...And then I'm going, "No! These guys are going into overtime? How did this happen?" So yeah, you're right, you do get a little jealous in situations like that.

On whether he thought about his famous "Miracle On Ice" call from the 1980 Olympics ahead of time.

Al Michaels: You never think about what you're going to say. Because when people say to me, "Hey, did you think about 'Do you believe in miracles!' [ahead of time]," I'm going, "Did I think about it?!" I said, "The U.S. had no chance to win that game. Zero! I'm just going to call the game." And Ken Dryden, who was my partner, and I are walking over to the arena and going, "It would be good for us if it's only like 3-to-1 Soviets in the middle of the second period. That would sound relatively close. So, we know what transpires. I always felt that if you prepare something it sounds very scripted. So you let your heart kind of take over...you let you let your emotions take over.

"If you prepare something it sounds very scripted. So you let your heart kind of take over."