NBC Sports Chair Mark Lazarus yesterday "laughed off the notion ... that he or the NFL or anyone else could dictate" to "SNF" announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth "what to say" after they were criticized for comments made last weekend regarding NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Mueller Report, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. The pair took a "beating" on social media for their comments, and Collinsworth "in particular was accused of being an apologist" for Goodell. Lazarus said, "We knew there'd be some criticism, but we thought strongly a couple of things: One, that we were the first game since the report came out. Two, we had the team involved in our game. And three, the commissioner was in the audience. We couldn't show him and not address the fact that it came out. I think if you go back and read it, Al's statement was very much reporting what the report said. It was not editorializing by him. It was pretty much saying what the report said." He added, "Cris' comments were more his own opinion and he feels he said exactly (what he wanted) and he repeated that on our show the next day." Best notes audio of Michaels before he went on-air revealed him "consulting with a producer about the fact he would be addressing the Mueller Report." Some people "took the exchange as evidence Michaels had been instructed to read prepared remarks." Lazarus: "What was said on the talk-back, the same thing happens on every commercial break of every broadcast. ... Al had some bullet points and said yup, yup, yup and that's exactly the way it went" (NEWSDAY, 1/15).
