Al Michaels has Donald Trump jokes in 'Thursday Night Football' return

Al Michaels has Donald Trump jokes in 'Thursday Night Football' return originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

At 81 years old, Al Michaels will soon be entering another NFL season in the booth.

The longtime play-by-play broadcaster — the voice of Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" broadcast since its 2022 inception — has typically kept it to football when on the air, but has always been willing to offer an opinion or crack a joke. During his first broadcast of 2026, that was the case.

Michaels, with cameras pointed at Lake Erie, poked fun at President Donald Trump's recent executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America."

Here's what Michaels said in the now-viral clip from Thursday's Browns vs. Patriots preseason game.

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On Thursday, Trump said he was renaming Lake Ontario to be known as "Lake America" in the United States, signing an executive order that directs the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. While Canada does not have to follow those same directions, it was the latest part of an escalating trade war between the two bordering countries.

Michaels certainly took notice, telling NFL fans to "read the news" on Thursday night.

With the preseason game being played in Cleveland, cameras cut to Lake Erie coming out of a commercial break.

"That is Lake Erie. We think it is still called Lake Erie... We're not quite sure at this point," Michaels said. "But we'll be by Lake something like Ontario or whatever it's going to be called by the time we get to Buffalo. Anyway, you know what I'm talking about... Read the news."

Al Michaels: "That is Lake Erie. We think it is still called Lake Erie... We're not quite sure at this point. But we'll be by Lake something like Ontario or whatever it's going to be called by the time we get to Buffalo. Anyway, you know what I'm talking about... Read the news." https://t.co/95yBtkta2Upic.twitter.com/zqOHbR7sST