Al Michaels, who recently said the controversy over the Redskins name is “nuts,” said football fans just don’t want announcers lecturing them on the Redskins name.
“Our audience wants to watch a football game, and all you really do to fans when they’re watching the game, if you go in that direction, is piss ’em off,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “They don’t want to be lectured to — period.”
Michaels is the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. The network also employs Bob Costas, who has used monologues during halftime to discuss a range off issues, including gun control and the Redskins name. Costas, during halftime of a Sunday night game last year, said the Redskins name, unlike the Indians or the Braves, was “an insult, a slur, no matter how benign the present-day intent.”