In Week 5, Minnesota Vikings kicker Will Reichard attempted a 51-yard field goal vs the Cleveland Browns that appeared to hit a camera wire in London. The kick had a bizarre slice and missed wide right, but interference wasn’t seen by officials and wasn’t brought up on the NFL Network broadcast.
On Thursday night, Reichard lined up for a field goal in the second quarter of the Vikings’ game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“His only miss this year was when we hit a camera wire in London,” Prime Video Thursday Night Football play-by-play announcer Al Michaels said before Reichard made a 54-yard field goal.
In the third quarter, Reichard lined up to attempt another field goal, and Michaels dropped in a very interesting note.
(Part II)
Al Michaels, later: “The league wants to take my lunch away because I said before that (Will) Reichard’s only miss was hitting a wire in London. The league says, ‘No, no, it was an optical illusion.'” 🏈🎙️ #NFL #TNF pic.twitter.com/FLwT0z5XBM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 24, 2025
“The league wants to take my lunch away because I said before that Reichard’s only miss was hitting a wire in London,” Michaels said. “The league says, ‘No, no, it was an optical illusion.'”
“That’s not what Reichard thinks,” Michaels continued. “Anyway, there you have it. We cleaned it up. I’m always cleaning up our mess. My mess.”
So, Michaels seemingly heard from the NFL in the middle of the Thursday Night Football broadcast that the idea Reichard’s kick in London hit a camera wire “was an optical illusion.”
In the end, this just makes the NFL look worse, and what was essentially a buried story now becomes a big one again.
And if Roger Goodell and the NFL expected Al Michaels to handle that explanation differently — or not say anything at all — on live television, they don’t know Al Michaels. The 80-year-old broadcasting legend doesn’t care what anyone thinks and tells it like it is at this stage of his career.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.