Al Michaels Believes The NFL ‘Did Us A Solid’ By Not Making Thursday Night Football Terrible This Year

Amazon’s first year as the home of Thursday Night Football didn’t go especially well, in large part due to the fact that the games tended to be pretty bad. While the ratings were pretty solid, it was common to see fans complaining about the caliber of games, as the NFL wasn’t exactly putting marquee matchups on Amazon every week.

The league remedied that a bit this year, as the schedule for Thursday Night Football this time around seems to be better. Here’s what the schedule looks like this year:

While we’re still waiting to see if late season games can potentially get flexed to Thursdays, the schedule is a hit with Amazon’s top broadcaster. Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated reached out to Al Michaels to get his thoughts on the TNF slate, and he’s a big fan.

“Absolutely!” he says. “Love the way we come out of the gate. Three ‘A’ grade games. Two Aaron Rodgers games. Baltimore-Cincinnati, another good one. League did us a solid.

“I was raring to go the minute I saw the whole slate. Already thinking of story lines for each game, of which there is no shortage.”

Of course, an NFL schedule can look really good in May and, when you fast forward to the fall, it’s nowhere near as appealing due to teams being disappointments and big-name players getting hurt. But after how last year went, it’s hard to fault Michaels for feeling excited over this.