“I think they understood what this was. We’re making the most of it. I mean, you just can’t oversell something. Do you want me to sell you a 20-year-old Maza? That’s what you’re asking me to do. I can’t sell you a used car,” Michaels said. “I’ve kind of gone down that road a little bit in games that have been bad in the past. But this game [Colts-Broncos] was horrifically bad. What were you supposed to do at that point? And away I went.”

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At one point, Michaels told analyst Kirk Herbstreit that “sometimes, a game can be, at least to this point, so bad it’s almost good. You know what I’m saying?”

Herbstreit responded simply, “No,” adding, “I’m not feeling that just yet over here.”

“I think I’m to the point in my life and career, having watched sports since I was 6 years old, I feel what the crowd feels. The Denver-Indianapolis game [in] Week 4 was a dreadful game. No other way to describe it,” Michaels said.

“A lot of people said, ‘Al’s bored, Al’s pissed off that he’s doing this.’ Not the case. Monday nights, Sunday night, I did things like this. Maybe not to that degree, but I try to echo the feelings of what the fan feels because I’m a fan.”

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He also said he felt he worked well with Herbstreit, who was delving into the role as an NFL analyst for the first time. Herbstreit has worked at ESPN as a college football analyst, having occasionally filled in for some NFL assignments.

“When he came in, a lot of people said, ‘Well, he doesn’t know the NFL.’ I said, ‘Hold on a second. Football is football.’ Of course, we know there are difference between pro and college. But Kirk knows that too,” Michaels said. “As the year went by, our pacing got better to where we wanted to go. It was never an issue to the point where it was a problem. But he’s a perfectionist. I’m a perfectionist. We wanted this thing to be as perfect as it could be.”

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Michaels is going to be back in a familiar position for NFL viewers soon. He will be on the call of the Jaguars-Chargers wild-card game on Saturday for NBC as he returns to the booth to call the primetime contest alongside Tony Dungy. He said he is excited about calling the game, and said it will be one of the spotlight games of the weekend.

As for what comes after that, Michaels said he’s open to working anything else for NBC, but otherwise will be ready to rest until the start of the 2023 NFL season.