Mike Tirico will step into the booth in place of Al Michaels for four of the 13 games NBC will broadcast the rest of the NFL regular season, the network announced on Wednesday.

Sunday night marks the first of those four games as Tirico joins Cris Collinsworth to call the Green Bay Packers-Washington Redskins game. Michaels, 72, saw his workload jump as NBC acquired five Thursday night games in February, part of a 10-game deal it splits with CBS.

“With the additional games on our schedule this season, it’s nice to have a bye week,” Michaels said. “We’re lucky to have someone of Mike’s caliber to step in with Cris, Michele (Tafoya) and the rest of the team.”

This is the third week Michaels and Collinsworth will have the Thursday night call, but the first that will be simulcast on NBC and NFL Network while streaming on Twitter.

“Once we added TNF, we always planned to give Al a chance to recharge to help him maintain his standard as one of the all-time greats. This week was the ideal time due to travel,” said Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of Sunday Night Football and Thursday Night Football, in a statement. “With Mike the voice of Monday Night Football for the last 10 years, we are fortunate to have two exceptional NFL play-by-play voices.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...aels/93956764/