Joe Buck thinks it ‘sucks’ how Al Michaels found out about NBC playoff demotion

If Al Michaels truly was blindsided by NBC removing him from the NFL playoffs this year, that doesn’t sit well with Joe Buck.

Buck, appearing as a co-host on this week’s “Marchand & Ourand” podcast, praised the 79-year-old Michaels as “the best to ever do it,” and lamented the fact that Michaels seemingly was taken aback by losing his playoff assignment to Noah Eagle.

“How was he told that he was not doing this playoff game?” Buck asked The Post’s Andrew Marchand. “If you tell me he’s known forever and this is the deal that he signed, that’s one thing. But to find out publicly, and you’re Al Michaels? And I’m happy for Noah Eagle. This has nothing to do with Noah Eagle. Ian Eagle I think is phenomenal. Noah’s great and an up-and-coming star in this business. Take them out of it. How was he alerted to this? Was this in his deal? Did he know beforehand? Did he find out through social media or through you [Marchand]? And if the answer is he found out through you or through social media, then I think that sucks.”

Michaels left his “Sunday Night Football” post with NBC in 2022 to join Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” booth with Kirk Herbstreit, but he was given an emeritus title with NBC and was still supposed to call a playoff game for the network, as he did last year for the Jaguars-Chargers wild card round game.

It’s unclear precisely when Michaels found out he was out of NBC’s plans this year, but he sounded surprised about his status being in limbo during a November interview with Marchand.

“It’s in my deal,” Michaels said. “Where are you hearing that from? That’s part of my deal. Are you hearing something that I’m not hearing?”

Michaels, who is believed to make between $500,000 and $1 million per game, intends to return to the Amazon booth next season for the final year of his three-year deal.

The way longtime sports announcers part ways with their employers is a sensitive topic for Buck, as he explained the story of how his father, Jack, was let go by CBS Radio in the mid-’90s during a four-minute meeting at the Tampa airport after being asked to drive over from St. Petersburg, with Joe watching it unfold.

Buck said he has “a lot of scar tissue” because of that incident.

“I know he was heartbroken,” Buck said, “but he never said that to me.”