Do you believe in signed contracts? No!
Al Michaels and NBC made it official yesterday, announcing that Michaels would be John Madden’s partner on “Sunday Night Football” next season.
What was not announced was that ABC Sports gave Michaels nearly $1 million to go away faster. After Michaels asked ABC/ESPN executives to be freed from his just signed eight-year, $32-million “Monday Night Football” contract that included private plane travel to games, Michaels still wanted to collect his $2 million to call the NBA for ABC this season.
“That was something that I was hoping they would allow me to continue to do,” Michaels said.
Instead, ABC/ESPN, sick of dealing with Michaels, did not want him near its NBA telecasts. ABC Sports executives felt so strongly that sources said they agreed to pay Michaels slightly less than $1 million not to do the NBA.
Yesterday, Michaels would not get into the particulars of his divorce settlement with ABC/ESPN. ABC/ESPN also would not comment specifically about the severance package.
“The entire process was a complicated negotiation between ESPN, NBC and Al Michaels,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.
Yes, they were. Negotiations that began with Michaels asking and receiving private jet travel to and from games from ESPN ended with Michaels essentially being traded to NBC in part for a cartoon rabbit.
In releasing Michaels from his contract, ESPN negotiated the rights for partial Ryder Cup coverage ($12M for Friday coverage for four years), some advertising and video deals, as well as the rights to Oswald The Lucky Rabbit.
Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was owned by NBC Universal. In 1927, Walt Disney created the character, but when he started his own company, he was prevented from using the drawings. It sort of worked out for Disney because he came up with another character instead – Mickey Mouse.