Al Michaels showed that he is tapped into the United States’ current events.
While calling the Patriots-Browns preseason “Thursday Night Football” NFL preseason game on Amazon’s Prime Video on Thursday, Michaels poked fun at President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
Michaels, 81, made the comments as the broadcast panned to an aerial shot of Huntington Bank Field, with the Cleveland skyline and Lake Erie in the background.
“That is Lake Erie. We think it is still called Lake Erie… We’re not quite sure at this point,” he said as Kirk Herbstreit chuckled. “But we’ll be by Lake something like Ontario or whatever it’s going to be called by the time we get to Buffalo.
“Anyway, you know what I’m talking about… Read the news.”
Trump signed an executive order Thursday declaring that Lake Ontario be renamed Lake America “effective immediately” amid the ongoing trade war with Canada and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else. We notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do, and this is official, effective immediately,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office on Thursday.
Michaels, who was citing Trump’s name change, is entering his fifth season calling games for Amazon since joining the streaming platform as its lead game-caller in 2022.
Earlier this year, there was much speculation that Michaels might retire following the 2025 NFL season.
Michaels, however, confirmed his return for this season in January, telling Sports Business Journal that he is “at the top of his game.”
“First of all, I feel great,” Michaels told SBJ. “Everyone at Amazon has been fantastic and I love working with this group.
“I’ve been looking at this year one year at a time and as long as I feel I’m at the top of my game, I’d like to continue.”
