NFL Week #11: In an uneven year, results of more games will have a bearing on post-season matchups

• The Foxies have the doubleheader. CBS is single this Sunday.

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  As it turns out, Al Michaels did his first network NFL game in 1971, 50 years ago. He partnered with Johnny Morris. As Al explained it, NBC was then the one and only network doing post season baseball which meant that it needed some back-up broadcasters. Curt Gowdy and Jim Simpson stuck with baseball and Jay Randolph and Charlie Jones were moved into the top two NFL booths. So Al, all of 26 at the time broadcast a Buffalo at Minnesota matchup. “The game though was blacked out in Minneapolis by NFL rule at the time,” Al told me. He added, “We were on in only one market, Buffalo, and on some UHF station which required some magical rabbit ear antennas to have a chance of seeing the game.”   

• There’s an interesting twist to the story. In 1971, Buffalo had both O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings. The two overlapped in Buffalo for a couple seasons. Never would Al have believed that 23 years later, in June, 1994, while working for ABC, he would again do play-by-play of the two. This one involved the two men in the riveting slow-car chase which captivated America. There they were, O.J. and Cowlings evading the pursuing police through the highways and byways of Southern California.

• Chris Myers will be back in his home state of Florida this weekend for 49ers-Jaguars. Myers is a South Floridian through and through. He began his broadcast career on Miami radio and for that matter hosted a talk-show on WIOD. He had that bizarre game last week that ended in a tie between the Steelers and Lions that ended in an overtime tie.

Thursday Nov 18 

8:20 PM – Fox, NFLN, Amazon Prime, New England @ Atlanta – Joe Buck, Troy Aikman

Fox 99%, NFL 53 million homes, Amazon Prime – Hannah Storm, Andrea Kremer

Sunday Nov 22 

1PM – CBS  Baltimore @ Chicago – Jim Nantz, Tony Romo 

46% , 127 stations 

1PM – CBS Indianapolis @ Buffalo – Kevin Harlan, Trent Green 

8%- 31 stations 

1PM – CBS, Miami @ NY Jets – Greg Gumbel, Adam Archuleta

 9% – 4 stations

1PM – CBS, Houston @ Tennessee – Andrew Catalon, James Lofton

10% – 29 stations 

1PM – Fox, Green Bay @ Minnesota Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen 

57% – 123 stations 

1PM-Fox – New Orleans @ Philadelphia – Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth

 15% – 31 stations

1PM-Fox – Washington @ Carolina – Kevin Kugler, Mark Sanchez

14% – 28 stations 

1PM-Fox – Detroit @ Cleveland – Gus Johnson, LaVar Arrington 

8% – 19 stations 

1PM-Fox – San Francisco @ Jacksonville- Chris Myers, Daryl Johnston 

5% – 10 stations 

4:05 PM -CBS  Cincinnati @ Las Vegas – Ian Eagle, Charles Davis 

 27% – 51 stations

4:25 -Fox Arizona @ Seattle – Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma 

6% – 17 stations 

4:25 PM -Fox – Dallas  @Kansas City – Joe Buck, Troy Aikman 

93% – 195 stations 

8:20 PM -NBC – Pittsburgh @ LA Chargers – Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth 

100%  

Monday Night Football  

8:15 PM -ESPN – NY Giants @ Tampa Bay – Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Louis Riddick

84 million homes – Mannings side-by-side on ESPN2