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Mike Tirico giving Al Michaels a break as he'll call four NBC prime-time games

frank schwab
NFL writer

Mike Tirico will be back in our NFL lives this season, after all.

Tirico, who was supposed to do some “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts on NBC before the NFL nixed that idea this offseason, is going to handle play-by-play duties on a few games for NBC down the stretch. NBC said that Tirico will do four games: Sunday night’s Green Bay Packers-Washington Redskins game, Pittsburgh Steelers-Indianapolis Colts on Thanksgiving, Kansas City Chiefs-Denver Broncos on Nov. 27 and a Thursday night New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles game on Dec. 22, via the Washington Post.

Cris Collinsworth, NBC’s color analyst, mentioned Michaels’ breaks during an appearance on Bill Simmons’ podcast (glad they ended that brief feud). Michaels, one of the all-time great broadcasters, is 72 years old, though there has been no word that Tirico pinch hitting has anything to do with Michaels’ health.

Tirico was the voice of “Monday Night Football” on ESPN before he was hired by NBC. Everyone figured part of Tirico’s duties would be a spot on NBC’s expanded “Thursday Night Football” package, but the NFL’s contract with NBC said that its Thursday night games must have the same production and announcers as “Sunday Night Football,” so Tirico couldn’t call Thursday games. Apparently the NFL is OK with Tirico getting a few late-season games to avoid overworking Michaels.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Mike Tirico will call four games for NBC this season (AP)
Mike Tirico will call four games for NBC this season. (AP)