Do you believe in Al Michaels on NBC Olympic curling? Everybody must get stoned

An NBC announcement within the last half hour that Al Michaels would play a major role in the 2010 coverage of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver -- he'll be the host of live weekend and weekday daytime coverage, not to step on Bob Costas, which is always a concern -- brought up of course the fact that, if you've got what many feel is the best overall sportscaster on the planet, why relegate him to a chair in a studio?

Michaels, of course, could do hockey again, but Doc Emerick, who just went into the Hockey Hall of Fame, is pretty well locked in. The other glamor events of the Winter Games -- figure skating, Alpine skiing, dressage, speed skating, camel racing, and snowboarding -- have their own broadcast voices well connected to the audience already.

But there's a large void in the curling event.

The voice of that sport, Don Chevrier, passed away in 2007 (story linked here) at age 69. He was considered the Jim McKay of Canadian sports in many ways.

NBC Olympic chief Dick Ebersol admitted that he really hasn't found a replacement for him on the broadcaster roster. Fred Roggin has been the curling host for the last couple of Winter Games, but calling the broom-and-stone action ...

"I do have a broom downstairs," Michaels said from his Brentwood home. "Listen, I'm open to everything. You put curling in an Olympic environment and you start watching it and you can't stop. One of the great things about the Olympics is the human interest, and this is a lot of fun."

For curling, all you really need is a good sense of humor, an authorative voice and knowledge of the Disney film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." Any takers?

These will be Michaels' first Olympic broadcasting assignments in 22 years. In this job, Michaels will host more than 50 hours over three weekends.

Michaels has done five previous Olympics:

-- 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, calling hockey for ABC.
-- 1984 Summer Games in L.A., doing the track and field and road cycling for ABC.
-- 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, doing figure skating and hockey for ABC.
-- 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, calling the hockey for ABC, among other things.
-- 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, calling the hockey gold-medal match between USSR and Czechoslovakia for NBC. He also did biathlon, speed skating, ski jumping and cross-country skiing. NBC only had nine announcer/reporters covering those Games.