“Sunday Night Football” play-by-play icon Al Michaels has a solid theory about why so many people still tune in to football, despite the NFL being plagued with public scandals like seemingly never before: “The only real reality television is live sports,” the NBC sportscaster opined.
Michaels also spent some of his Thursday Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour session remembering his recently deceased former “Monday Night Football” colleague, Frank Gifford. Michaels, who called 256 games with the former New York Giants great, called Gifford “the coolest guy in the room” and “a classy guy on so many levels.”
He closed a touching impromptu eulogy by referring to Gifford as “A wonderful partner, a great guy.”
“I’ll always remember him and I’ll miss him,” Michaels concluded of the NFL Hall-of-Famer.
Gifford, who was married to “Today” show co-host Kathie Lee Gifford, died suddenly on Sunday. He was 84.
Michael’s current “Sunday Night Football” partner, Cris Collinsworth offered his candid comments on Tom Brady’s ongoing Deflategate scandal, in which the New England Patriots quarterback is accused of instructing a ball boy to deflate footballs to make them easier to catch.
“There were a lot of mistakes made in that situation.” Collinsworth said, spreading the blame around the AFC East organization.
And the way he sees it, there are only two outcomes at this point — and they’re both pretty bad. “Either Tom Brady cheated the game … or he did not, and the NFL is tainting the legacy of one of the greatest players we’ve ever seen,” Collinsworth stated.
Brady is currently appealing the four-game suspension handed down by the NFL.