Al Michaels might’ve been covering an NFL pre-season game on Thursday night, but his sharp wit was in regular-season form as he cracked a joke about the latest controversy involving the ongoing trade war between Canada and the U.S.
In one of Donald Trump’s latest foolhardy political ploys, the U.S. president on Thursday afternoon signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America.
“(There’s) no message,” Trump said when asked why renaming Lake Ontario was suddenly such a priority for him.
“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly — even the military, we defend Canada for nothing, we don’t get anything. They don’t pay us to defend Canada, but we defend Canada, and they understand that.”
What did Al Michaels say?
The news apparently didn’t escape the attention of the 81-year-old NFL broadcaster, though, and Michaels appeared to poke fun at Trump’s edict with Kirk Herbstreit, his colleague in the Amazon Prime booth for the game between the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots.
Coming back from a commercial break after the host Browns had opened the scoring with a touchdown and were readying to kick off to the Pats, the broadcast showed an aerial shot of Huntington Bank Field and nearby Lake Erie.
“That is Lake Erie. We think it is still called Lake Erie,” Michaels said, drawing a laugh from Herbstreit.
“We’re not quite sure at this point,” Michaels continued. “But we’ll be by Lake something, Lake Ontario or whatever it’s going to be called by the time we get to Buffalo.
“Anyway, you know what I’m talking about … Read the news.”
The pair then got back to calling the game action as the ball was kicked off.
How did fans react?
Michaels’ commentary drew plenty of reaction on social media — from both sides of the political spectrum.
Some praised Michaels — who has been in broadcasting for six decades — for still having his fastball and bringing some humour to the situation.
Others didn’t take his comments as a joke and called for him to apologize for making a mockery of the U.S. president.
Some followers also felt that he shouldn’t be talking about politics during a game while others felt that it is time for him to retire.
“Al Michaels please keep politics out of football most of us use it as an escape from the nonsense,” one social media user commented.