Free Republic

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Al Michaels. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. 40 years ago today, sports announcing legend Al Michaels gave the call to the end of the most influential sporting event in the history of the United States, the medal round match between the US and the Soviet Union. A group of American college kids beat the Soviet hockey team, who at the time was considered the most formidible hockey team in Olympic history. The United States went on to beat Finland and win...

The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience in international play. By contrast, the United States' team—led by head coach Herb Brooks—consisted exclusively of amateur players, and was the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared: "Do you believe in miracles?! YES!" In 1999,...

NBC sports announcer Al Michaels blamed Trump stoking tensions in the “take a knee” nonsense plaguing the NFL. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Michaels said he believed the kneeling controversy was simmering down until Trump weighed in, “once the president made those remarks in Alabama, at that particular point it was like throwing a match into a gas tank.”

RUSH: How was your weekend, folks? Everything okay, or were you one of the people disguised as empty seats at an NFL game? Did you see some of these photos at some of these stadiums? Jacksonville? Houston? Man. Now the networks are not televising the anthem. ESPN and who was it? ESPN and Fox are not gonna televise the anthem. That’s only gonna tick off the players. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Last night NBC Sunday Night Football. It’s the game between the New York Giants and the Denver Broncos. Al Michaels talking about how surprised he was at how well the...

Do you believe in pitiful? Renowned sports broadcaster Al Michaels awkwardly injected Harvey Weinstein’s ongoing sexual assault scandal into NBC’s Giants-Broncos telecast Sunday night, comparing the Hollywood bigwig’s transgressions to the level of turmoil the Giants had experienced this past week. The Giants lost four starting receivers to injury in their loss to the Chargers last week, including season-ending injuries to Odell Beckham Jr., Brandon Marshall and Dwayne Harris. The Giants also suspended Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie indefinitely after a meeting between Rodgers-Cromartie and coach Ben McAdoo. “I mean, let’s face it. The Giants are coming off a worse week than Harvey...

Watched NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt last night (Thursday, August 18th). Lester's last segment was on how the USA women were winning more medals than the men in Rio 2016. They showed a variety of photos of different women who have won medals - but I noticed that they didn't include Ginny Thrasher and Kim Rhode, air rifle and skeet shooter respectively, in the segment. They've won medals too -- Gold Medal for Thrasher and 4 or 5 career Olympic medals for Rhode, including one in Rio. The NBC Nightly News website shows last night broadcast, but it does...

...Pittsburgh Steelers coaches were getting the Patriots' broadcast over their headsets during Thursday night's game. The Patriots' coach-to-coach headsets were shut off intermittently, the NFL told Tafoya. NFL head of security Jeff Miller was shown on camera while Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth were discussing the mishap. Blake Jones, NFL director of football operations, went down to the field to help out with the headsets. The league described the reception problem as "intermittent" and it was believed to be resolved early in the second quarter. Because it was not a complete system failure, New England's coaches were not required to...

Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels wanted to break his contract with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and ESPN to go to NBC. He didn't know he would be traded for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Disney executives had released Mr. Michaels from his contract, but they also extracted a series of business concessions from their rival, General Electric Co. One was the return of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character created by Walt Disney in 1927 that was a precursor to Mickey Mouse. The rights to Oswald belonged to Universal Studios and Disney had always coveted this piece of its history. NBC...

Michaels jumps to NBC Broadcaster to join Madden on Sunday nights Posted: Thursday February 9, 2006 12:15PM; Updated: Thursday February 9, 2006 12:33PM NEW YORK (AP) -- Al Michaels is moving to NBC and will broadcast Sunday night NFL games with John Madden, his partner on ABC during the past four seasons. In exchange for letting Michaels out of his contract with ABC and ESPN, which are owned by The Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal sold ESPN cable rights to Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups, granted ESPN increased usage of Olympic highlights and sold to The Walt...

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer February 9, 2006 AP - Feb 9, 2:33 pm EST More Photos NEW YORK (AP) -- Al Michaels was traded from ABC to NBC for a cartoon bunny, four rounds of golf and Olympic highlights. The rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a bunny created by Walt Disney in the 1920s before he invented Mickey Mouse, were transferred from NBC Universal to The Walt Disney Co. as part of the agreement to release the broadcaster from his contract with ABC and ESPN. "As the forerunner to Mickey Mouse and an important part of Walt...

Michaels not on new MNF team BY NEIL BEST STAFF WRITER February 8, 2006, 10:29 AM EST ESPN announced Wednesday that its Monday Night Football announcing team would be Mike Tirico on play-by-play with Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser as analysts. The news release made no mention of the man who was under contract to do play-by-play, Al Michaels, who had done that job on ABC's version of Monday Night Football. ESPN has an eight-year deal with the NFL to show Monday Night Football beginning this fall. Michaels was absent from the new release because he will not work for...

After Al Michaels' crack last night, who knew Brent Mussberger would get into the act? Mussberger's calling the Florida State-Miami game--which has been kinda dull up to now. Anyway, he noted that FSU is rated #6 in the BCS poll while Miami is #5. However, their rankings in the coaches' poll are exactly the opposite. "Flip-flopped," said Mussberger. "Where have we heard that before?" It's contagious!

Did you hear? The game's in Massachusetts, right? John Madden said that the Colts fumble at the goal line, after the Pats threw an interception, was a "flip-flop." Michaels replied, "We're in the right state for that."

Looks like John Kerry's critics have a fan at ABC - the sports division, anyway. Late in Thursday's nationally televised Patriots-Colts game in Foxboro, hosts Al Michaels and John Madden went political. After an odd series of plays, including a retracted pass interference call and a Colts fumble, Michaels said, ``What a wacky series.'' Madden replied: ``This is what you'd call a flip-flop.'' To which Michaels said, ``You're in the right state for that.'' Kerry's campaign wasn't pleased. ``Hey, didn't they know the Pats game was in FoxBORO, not FoxNEWS?'' asked Michael Meehan, a Kerry senior adviser.

WEEK 1 Thu, Sep 4 TIME (ET) TV LOCATION NY Jets at Washington 9:00 PM ABC ----------------------------------- Sun, Sep 7 TIME (ET) TV LOCATION New England at Buffalo 1:00 PM CBS Denver at Cincinnati 1:00 PM CBS Indianapolis at Cleveland 1:00 PM CBS San Diego at Kansas City 1:00 PM CBS Houston at Miami 1:00 PM CBS St. Louis at NY Giants 1:00 PM FOX Baltimore at Pittsburgh 1:00 PM CBS Arizona at Detroit 1:00 PM FOX Minnesota at Green Bay 1:00 PM FOX Jacksonville at Carolina 1:00 PM CBS Chicago at San Francisco 4:15 PM FOX New Orleans at...