Courtesy Bradenton Journal

(January 30, 2009) You would think the guy who gave us “Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!” and 19 years of Monday Night Football and has worked the World Series, the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals would walk into the TV booth Sunday without a trace of sweat. But Al Michaels, who will call the play-by-play for the Super Bowl, said he will have a butterfly or two.

“You get excited, and it’s a good excitement,” Michaels said. “There’s nervousness because you want to come out on the air clean. I know how to channel it and not get over-excited. I’ve been here before. I know what it’s like. You’re heart is beating because you know what it is.”

This is Michaels’ seventh Super Bowl and third alongside commentator John Madden.

“I don’t want to say it gets easier,” Michaels said. “But I’ve been down this road before.”

Michaels, who is regarded by many to be the best play-by-play man on TV, said he is hoping for a game every bit as dramatic as the one played last year by the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

“Announcers root for drama. I love drama,” he said. “I want this game to be really good and exciting and close and interesting with a lot of strategy and maybe some controversy and some memorable plays and then go to double overtime. That’s my perfect scenario.”

He wouldn’t mind a pass play like Eli Manning-to-David Tyree on the game-winning drive, either. “Oh sure,” Michaels said. “I’d love about 40 of those.”

Less for more

Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald said he would rework his contract if it meant the organization could resign receiver Anquan Boldin and quarterback Kurt Warner.

“Anything to keep this team together,” he said. “In the NFL, the window of opportunity to win a championship is very small because of the salary cap and free agency and all the other things that can tear a team apart. So, anything I could do to help, I’d be more than willing.”

It’s tough in the booth

The hardest adjustment John Madden had to make when he left the sidelines for the TV booth was his view of the action.

“The toughest thing for me was to learn to watch the game,” he said. “As a sideline coach, I could put myself in position to see all 22 players and know what all 22 did on every play.”

When he got to the booth, he found himself following the ball, which meant he wasn’t really watching the blocking or the pass defense. That became a problem because he know had to comment on the blocking or the pass defense.

Hello, instant replay.

“This is a different game,” he said. “This isn’t the game I knew.”

What helped was Madden was not calling the action, only sharing his thoughts on it.

“I’m not really a TV person,” he said. “I’m a football person. I see myself as a coach and a teacher.”

Working alongside Michaels makes his job easier.

“He’s so smooth,” Madden said. “I don’t have to be.”

Happy to be here

When Pittsburgh Steelers long snapper Jared Retkofsky said he’s just happy to be at the Super Bowl, he is not kidding.

Three months ago he was moving furniture for the Bonilla Moving Company in Fort Worth, Texas. He took that job after being cut twice this year by the Steelers.

“The last week I was there I got a raise to $15 an hour,” he said.