Al Michaels’ wallet took a hit when Tom Brady decided to leave the New England Patriots and sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency.
The legendary “Sunday Night Football” broadcaster shared a funny story this week while chatting with NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico.
Apparently, Michaels was so confident during the 2019 season about Brady’s future that he was willing to make a bet with crazy odds. The supposed wager came back to bite Michaels, though, and now he owes a colleague some serious coin.
It all started with an interaction Michaels had with Brady ahead of the Patriots’ primetime matchup with the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9.
“I said to him, ‘Look, I know you’re not going to answer this question, but I just can’t imagine you being in any other uniform but New England’s uniform.’ And he kind of laughed, and I said, ‘In fact, Tom, I’m going to give you odds of 43,000 to 1,’ ” Michaels recalled. “And one of our great research people, Andy Freeland, then plunked down $2 on the table to take the bet. So I now owe Andy Freeland $86,000 when we do our first Tampa Bay game this year. And, by the way, it will be installment payments of about $3 a year.”
We’re not sure whether Michaels really plans to pay up, but that was a bold stand for him to take. While he hardly was alone in expecting Brady would re-sign with the Patriots, there certainly were some signs — even back in November — that suggested the quarterback actually might take his talents elsewhere after 20 seasons in New England.
