Al Michaels wasn’t afraid to expose the NFL’s attempt to cover up Vikings K Will Reichard’s missed field goal controversy
Leave it to Al Michaels to call out the league and then eat his lunch.
The Minnesota Vikings have not had a fun time this season.
Going into Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers, they have been on the wrong side of the coin on multiple calls by the referees. Last week, against the Philadelphia Eagles, they were on the wrong end of two reviews that contradicted each other.
Earlier in the season, the Vikings played two games overseas in Dublin, Ireland, and London, England. Both of those had instances where odd elements with the stadium went against them, including the play clock not working on one side of the field at Croake Park.
NFL makes Al Michaels change his tune with controversial play
In London, the Vikings ended up getting the win over the Cleveland Browns 21-17, but the game should have been tied going into that final drive. Will Reichard kicked a field goal that took a very odd trajectory toward the right side. It went way wide, and the ball looked like it hit the skycam cable.
Later the following week, the NFL admitted it was a missed call, and Reichard asked to have the missed kick removed from the scorebook. The NFL said no to that request, and we moved on.
During the game on Thursday night, Al Michaels mentioned before Reichard’s first field goal attempt that his only miss was because of the wire. Well, the NFL forced him to correct that statement later on in the game.
“The league wants to take my lunch away because I said before that Reichard’s only miss came when it hit a wire in London,” said Michaels. “The league said ‘no, no, it was an optical illusion.’ Not what Reichard thinks.”
It’s quite a hypocrisy that Michaels was forced to retract a factually correct statement. The ball did hit the wire per the league, but they don’t want to look bad for their own mistake. It’s certainly a bad look for the league to force Michaels to “correct himself,” as he did with some disdain in his voice.
Mistakes happen, and the NFL is trying to bury it instead of just admitting it is an awful look that won’t help some of the negative PR issues they have. Nevertheless, Michaels has the experience and cache to be able to call the league out for what it is, and that’s a good thing.
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