Amazon NFL announcer Al Michaels is an expert on many things, but the breadth of Taylor Swift’s fandom does not appear to be among them.
During the third quarter of Amazon’s Thursday Night Football game between the New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals, which did not go well for Andy Dalton’s team, a teaser video for her highly anticipated album “Midnights” was unveiled. While Swift’s broad appeal makes her one of the rare artists who can cross over in a way like this, Michaels was a bit stuck in the past about the demographics that might be interested in listening to the album afterward.
After the video played, Michaels turned to boothmate Kirk Herbstreit and insinuated that since he only has sons, they couldn’t possibly be interested in listening to Swift’s new album.
“You have four sons,” said Michaels. “If you had a daughter she would be over the moon right? I have a granddaughter and she’s completely over the moon right now…no one more popular among the teenage girl group than Taylor Swift.”
Al Michaels Taylor Swift comments pic.twitter.com/XvLrvn5pJp
— sportsvids99 (@sportsvids991) October 21, 2022
While many of Swift’s fans are indeed female, the comments seem to rub a lot of people the wrong way as they reinforced the antiquated notion that women musical performers are just for women, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
All respect to Al Michaels, but dudes can be Taylor Swift fans, too.
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) October 21, 2022
https://twitter.com/BenAxelrod/status/1583281015023280128
whining like this is super boring but i'm going to do it anyway: the "teenage girls must be so excited!" nonsense is so dull and embarrassing and uninformed. boo.
— Nora Princiotti (@NoraPrinciotti) October 21, 2022
The NFL wants to be in business with Taylor Swift in part because she appeals to a demographic that the NFL would like to reach more, but Al Michaels' assumption that Kirk Herbstreit's kids don't like Taylor Swift because he has sons was kinda dumb. https://t.co/QB87fcRX32
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) October 21, 2022
AL THERE ARE PLENTY OF SONS OVER THE MOON AS WELL OK.
— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) October 21, 2022
Michaels has put his foot in his mouth a few times now since joining Amazon as the voice of their football coverage. He failed to discuss the Deshaun Watson situation in meaningful terms during the Cleveland Browns game a few weeks back. And he was part of the TNF crew’s disastrous discussion around Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion. However, he’s also been speaking freely about gambling situations, how bad most of the games he’s had to cover have been so far, and even took a shot at Dan Synder, so we suppose he’s just working things out right now.
But Al, please, don’t give the Swifties any more ammo.
