Al Michaels really doesn’t like flags and he made that very clear during the broadcast of Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football.”
A total of fifteen flags were thrown in Cowboys 20-15 win over Giants.
It was the loud volume in the first half that drew the ire of the legendary sports channel, and he made it a point to air his grievances on several occasions during the game.
“It looks like June 14th here, otherwise known as Flag Day, as you know,” Michaels joked at one point during the first half of the broadcast.
“We’ve got another flag. You’ve got two more flags in the backfield. No more laundry left. … And any number of calls coming your way,” Michaels said as the officials called several penalties late in the half.
Michaels, 79, wasn’t done chiding the officials for the number of penalty flags they threw.
At halftime, Michaels continued to pick on the crew, at one point asking analyst Kirk Herbstreit, “Besides the fact that the game was completely out of rhythm because of what’s happened with the flags, what do you think of the first half?”
And in the third quarter, after the refs called their first penalty with 5:16 left in the frame, he commented, “The flag is down. Amazingly the first of the quarter.”
Over the course of the first 30 minutes, the referees called 12 combined penalties between the Giants and Cowboys, even picking up the flags on several occasions — including on Dallas’ first score.
The Giants dropped to 1-3 on the season with the loss to the Cowboys, despite a decent showing from quarterback Daniel Jones, who threw for 281 yards.
Big Blue failed to score a touchdown in the game and relied solely on the legs of Greg Joseph for its 15 points Thursday night.