Do you believe in miracles?
The Patriots and Steelers combined for 31 points in the first half of New England’s 21-18 win on Thursday night, a stunning development for two offenses struggling so mightily that the over/under for the game was a meager 30.5.
It was a Pittsburgh touchdown that cut New England’s lead to 21-9 late in the second quarter as Amazon announcer Kirk Herbstreit said, “They answered the call. They needed the points and they got ’em.”
And when Chris Boswell followed with the extra point, Al Michaels added, “And if you liked the over, they’ve also answered the call.”
After a commercial break, the legendary broadcaster added, “So a lot of people thought, that there’d only be like — some people, consensus — 30 points in this game. Not AWS. They didn’t weigh in on this. But your friendly local bookmaker. Or unfriendly ones.”
Michaels is no stranger to referencing gambling lines during broadcasts.
He told the Sports Business Journal that the league asked Michaels, then with ABC, not to mention the record-high 18.5 spread during Super Bowl XXIX between the 49ers and Chargers in 1995.
Late in the game with San Francisco leading by 23 and the Chargers driving, Michaels said of an incomplete pass to the end zone, “Hearts beating all over the land as [Stan] Humphries throws incomplete.”
It’s not always the marquee games that get Michael’s gambling juices flowing.
While working a 2010 preseason 49ers-Vikings game for NBC, Minnesota QB Joe Webb was sacked for a safety on the final play of the game, which meant San Francisco — 3.5 point favorites — covered with a 15-10 win.
“That’s going to create a safety,” Michaels said laughing. “And that’s gonna end the game. And you know why I’m laughing don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Cris Collinsworth said.
“Of course you do,” Michaels said.”
“There are some people happy, some not so happy,” Collinsworth said.
“Right and there are some going, ‘I can’t believe what just happened,'” Michaels said.
Even blowouts have gotten the Michaels treatment.
Kansas City’s 45-10 win over Cincinnati in 2018 still had drama in the final minutes with the Chiefs inside the Bengals 10.
“I’m trying to do a little math here,” he said. “You [Collinsworth] kinda know what I’m thinking about. 56.5 is a number that a lot of the fans are thinking about right now.”
The Chiefs didn’t score.
But Michaels, a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, who also called the World Series and NBA Finals, admitted in 2021 that making references wasn’t as fun with the gambling being widely accepted.
“Now I guess they’re allowing me to come in the front door, which is not as much fun as kind of doing it subtly,” he said.
