The NFL is a well-oiled machine. It owns a whole day of the week, for crying out loud, and somehow even that wasn't enough to satiate it. So, don't color me shocked to find out the league attempted to control the story when a journalist was doing real reporting on a he-said, he-said between the Minnesota Vikings kicker and official stat keepers.
During Amazon Prime's coverage of Thursday Night Football between the Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers, play-by-play announcer Al Michaels gave some interesting background on Minnesota kicker Will Reichard.
The 24-year-old entered the contest having only missed a single field goal all season, an attempt that strayed wide right during the team's 21-17 comeback victory over the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Reichard claimed the ball hit a television camera wire, insisting that that's what misdirected his attempt.
Sources: #Vikings K Will Reichard’s agents and the team’s front office requested that the NFL remove his missed FG from last week’s London game after it clearly struck a camera cable, causing the ball to take an unnatural turn to the right.
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) October 12, 2025
The NFL acknowledged it was a missed… pic.twitter.com/VLNayoFKXl
Reichard and his agent reportedly asked for a formal statistical change to reflect that he did not miss the kick, but instead it was unduly influenced. The league acknowledged the missed call but did not accommodate his request to fix his stats.
Al Michaels reminds us what real journalism is by refusing NFL's correction plea
During Thursday's game, the league apparently called up to the booth to ask Michaels to correct his comments, as they now deemed the wire mishap to be an "optical illusion."
Al Michaels completely unloading on Roger Goodell right before break 😂 pic.twitter.com/awc0FcaJM7
— Roberto Shenanigans (@Rob_Shenanigans) October 24, 2025
"The league wants to take my lunch away because I said before that Reichard's only miss came when he hit a wire in London. The league says, 'No, no, it was an optical illusion.' [That's] not what Reichard thinks," Michaels reported from the booth.
Michaels holding his ground live and on-air against the NFL as it tried to get him to bend to their will is inspiring to say the least. When it feels like the season is practically scripted and most coverage is propagandized to make the league look good, it's refreshing to hear things little rawer for a change.
He didn't do anything wrong either, at least not that the league can come after him for. He didn't report misinformation or intentionally mislead viewers. He reported what appeared to happen on television in front of millions of fans and then gave both Reichard and the league's points of view on the situation. That's the definition of journalism.
Fans will reach their own conclusions on what actually happened and they can only do that because of Michael's work.