NBC’s Mike Tirico opens as much as The Put up on why calling his first Tremendous Bowl is so ‘surreal’

Mike Tirico will name Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl 2026, his first doing play-by-play within the Massive Sport, on NBC and Peacock. Following the sport and thru Feb. 22, he’ll host the Olympics for the fifth time, anchoring NBC’s prime-time protection of the Milan Winter Video games. Tirico will change into the one particular person to do Tremendous Bowl play-by-play and host Olympics protection in the identical yr.

Q: Have you ever solicited any recommendation for calling your first Tremendous Bowl?

A: The one who I do know I’m gonna speak to for positive is Kevin Burkhardt. As a result of Kevin’s the one who most just lately went via that first expertise, and we have now been in contact with one another by textual content the final three years or so and see one another at NFL conferences. I’m such a fan of Kevin and his story. There was a protracted stretch the place the one three folks doing the Tremendous Bowl have been Al Michaels, Jim Nance and Joe Buck. His first one was solely three years in the past, so it’s contemporary in his thoughts. … Look, it’s a soccer recreation I’ve watched the final eight or 9 begin to end over the previous couple of months, so I do know what the sport is like, however the day is completely different, and I’d like to take the recommendation of any individual who I love simply to listen to, “Hey, right here’s what I realized, right here’s what you’re in all probability gonna expertise.”

Q: What do you hope viewers say about you when Tremendous Bowl 2026 is over?

A: I hope they are saying that the printed was good. I don’t need them to find out about me. This recreation, like each recreation, just isn’t about me. No one has ever watched a recreation for an announcer. An announcer could improve your degree of enjoyment, however apart from our household and shut family members, no person’s watching the sport due to who’s calling the sport. So I simply wish to do the correct job of documenting the sport, informing and entertaining the viewers, and also you’re on to your subsequent factor in your life. It’s the best single sporting day in America, persons are gathered round their TV. No one’s gathering to watch me and Cris [Collinsworth], they’re gathering to benefit from the recreation. So hopefully you do the fitting job the fitting approach, and we’re on to Monday morning.

Q: What can be your Tremendous Bowl Sunday routine?

A: It’ll be just a little completely different ’trigger I’m gonna get up in the course of the night time in California and watch Lindsay Vonn within the girls’s downhill on the Olympics, 1) as a result of that’s the most important story of the Olympics that day if there’s no cancellation due to snow, and a pair of) as a result of if she wins, that’s gonna be one of many nice tales we’ve ever seen — 41 years outdated, knee alternative, again competing within the downhill and doing properly. If she wins, that’ll be a narrative we’ll speak about ceaselessly within the Olympic world. … So, after getting again to sleep, I plan on getting up regular time and doing my regular routine. The sport kicks off at 3:25 native time, that’s 5 hours sooner than we normally have video games kick off on Sunday nights. So the day will fly by, I’m positive, however particularly understanding on the again finish of that we have now the Olympics to host on the sphere that night time.

Q: Pregame butterflies, or adrenaline?

A: Adrenaline, sure. Nerves, no. I’ve finished Tremendous Bowl halftime with 110 million folks watching. Very similar to the gamers simply wanting ahead to that first hit, I’m wanting ahead to that point I say, “second-and-5.” (snigger). It’s gonna be like the opposite 500 or so soccer video games I’ve referred to as in my life. It simply has a couple of extra folks watching.

Q: What are your ideas on Sam Darnold?

A: First play as a Jet [was a] pick-six in Detroit on a Monday night time. You simply go, “Oh my gosh, that’s the Jets!” Good for him for locating his place. 4 groups in 4 years, bouncing round, I’m so completely happy for him, personally, that he’s getting this second. He’s earned it.

Q: Drake Maye?

A: Proper out of a screenwriter’s pen. Married to his center faculty sweetheart, from a household of athletes and champions, and he has succeeded and thrived in a spot the place once you go within the constructing, there’s a statue of the man who simply completed being one of the best quarterback of our lifetime proper on the market in entrance of you. To thrive within the shadow of greatness is difficult. He has finished it easily and effortlessly.

Q: Mike Vrabel?

A: Imposing, and spectacular. An imposing bodily stature in any room he walks in. And spectacular in not simply the way in which he coaches a group, but additionally the depth and information he has all throughout the sphere. He’s just like the prototypical coach for the 2026 NFL, and I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine why they let him out of the constructing in Tennessee.

Q: Mike Macdonald?

A: Obtained to know him in Baltimore. Was with him on the house owners conferences proper after he had been named head coach, and no person was speaking to him, he was simply standing by himself just a little bit together with his spouse. It was actually neat to speak to him and watch how he has led this group. I like the truth that lots of people nationally don’t know him, however he has a dedication and a connection together with his gamers th atis simply understated, but it surely’s all enterprise. I’m so completely happy {that a} coach in his second yr is proving that he can are available in and have this type of impression.

Q: What do you consider the matchup?

A: The Seahawks are worthy favorites. They’ve performed a more durable schedule to get their 14 wins. There’s one thing about this New England group that they’re in each recreation. I believe what can be most necessary for New England is to attempt to discover sustained offense, which they actually have struggled to do within the three playoff video games. Don’t let Seattle’s protection dominate the tempo and tone of the sport, which they’ve finished to folks over this yr.

Q: Will there be an X-factor?

A: I believe it’s the power of New England’s protection to close down Kenneth Walker, and disrupt the timing with Darnold.

Q: What do you consider Levi’s Stadium?

A: Want it was nearer to San Francisco for the sport. Don’t like the truth that it’s so separated from the place the hubbub is gonna be. However after I walked again in there this yr, I actually appreciated the view. The sales space is sweet, the lodge’s good, and it’s gonna be considered one of my favourite stadiums for the remainder of my life ’trigger it’s my first Tremendous Bowl stadium.

Q: What do you keep in mind concerning the Malcolm Butler interception?

A: I believe I used to be with everybody in that simply shocked disbelief that the ball was not being run within the fingers of Marshawn Lynch at the moment. And simply the shot of Tom Brady on the sideline, even he couldn’t consider [it]. That look on Brady’s face, a man that had been there and gained it so many instances, of pure disbelief, was simply one of many nice photographs in Tremendous Bowl historical past.

Q: What’s your single favourite Tremendous Bowl?

A: Take away those that I’ve labored, as a result of these are private favorites simply to be there. You already know what? I’m gonna lie, I’m gonna offer you that one. It sounds silly: Tremendous Bowl 34 in Atlanta between the Rams and Tennessee Titans as a result of I used to be lucky sufficient to be the particular person doing trophy presentation, and I by no means imagined or dreamed that I’d be the particular person there because the Tremendous Bowl trophy was handed to Dick Vermeil and Kurt Warner. There was no approach that was on the bingo card of life for me rising up as a child in Queens. That’s the one NFL image I’ve sitting in my home. That was the primary time that ESPN produced the pregame present for ABC. Chris Berman hosted the pregame and halftime, I used to be part of that present, after which I bought the prospect to do the trophy presentation for Tremendous Bowl 34 and 37, 40 and 56. That was the primary one which to me was private, in order that sticks actually near my coronary heart.

Q: Greatest Tremendous Bowl you’ve ever seen?

A: The [first] Kansas Metropolis-Philadelphia Tremendous Bowl [to cap the 2022 season] … from a recreation high quality, that may be one of the best one. That one simply was fringe of your seat the entire recreation.

Q: Giants Tremendous Bowls.

A: The one in Indianapolis [following the 2011 season], our children have been younger sufficient, and we introduced the entire household to that recreation. I simply watched that as a fan. I at all times had a heat spot in my coronary heart for the Giants due to household that rooted for the Giants as we have been rising up. To know that individuals who you grew up with have been so completely happy to see the Giants do this was nice. And it gave you hope that sooner or later the Jets would really feel that, too … however we all know actuality (snigger).

Q: Describe your on-air type.

A: Hopefully pleasant … hopefully welcoming. … I attempt to be that conduit for individuals who aren’t spending their complete week at a recreation, simply to let you realize what issues and what’s necessary. I’d say that it’s hopefully speaking with, to not, the viewers.

Q: What drives you now, and what drove you as a youthful man?

A: I believe driving me was simply making an attempt to make it. First-generation faculty scholar out of my household, so I used to be blessed by the help of lots of people and to have this chance. I believe I’ve at all times been pushed simply to succeed professionally, and I’ve loved the climb. I loved all of the roles I did at ESPN and all of the alternatives I’ve gotten alongside the way in which. So the climb has been enjoyable. I’m somebody who believes that the climb isn’t finished. … It’s nonetheless exhausting to consider that I’m attending to name a Tremendous Bowl.

Q: Largest impediment you needed to overcome?

A: I’d say the impediment as I bought via this was making an attempt to show that I could possibly be a play-by-play man whereas I used to be doing “SportsCenter.” And a profession in studio [would have] been nice, I might have beloved it, and I did. I get to do each now — with the Olympic job and the opposite issues that come throughout just like the Kentucky Derby, let’s say, or different occasions like that. However I actually, in my coronary heart of hearts, needed to be a play-by-play announcer. I like that problem nonetheless to this present day, and also you needed to show your self that you would get away and do this, and be seen as such.

Q: Your favourite calls?

A: Unusually sufficient, golf doesn’t have loads of nice calls essentially, doesn’t lend it to that, however Jean van de Velde on the [1999] British Open, as he hit a ball that bounced off the grandstands and went into the water and it’s within the burn, that was essentially the most memorable 72nd holes within the historical past of main championship golf. It was solely my third yr of doing golf, I don’t assume I noticed then how monumental that second was. … Dameon Lillard with a [2014] playoff winner for Portland once they hadn’t been via the primary spherical in 14 years, that was fairly memorable for me. After which surely the final recreation of the common season [this season] in Pittsburgh with Baltimore will go proper to the highest of the record as a result of I didn’t see that coming.

Q: Favourite calls from different announcers or broadcasters?

A: I nonetheless love Jack Buck’s name of the [Kirk] Gibson residence run [in the 1998 World Series]. Truly, each calls of the Gibson residence run, [Vin] Scully and [Jack] Buck. Al [Michaels’] “Do you consider in miracles?” was simply timeless and was pitch excellent from the 1980 U. S. Olympic hockey group.

Q: Most electrical occasion you lined?

A: Tiger [Woods] successful the Masters the final time in 2019. I really referred to as that on radio. To be at Augusta, that scene across the 18th inexperienced, whereas it’s a good-sized crowd, it’s a small crowd relative to large moments in sports activities. … Tiger successful there was one of many moments I’ll by no means, ever overlook, and to be 15 toes off the inexperienced with the spot the place we’re calling it was simply unforgettable. I can nonetheless see that scene at this time.

Q: Golf is way completely different than calling hockey.

A: These are the 2 diametric opposites. I’m a believer in that the environment that you just’re in inform you the best way to act and the best way to mission and what degree to achieve. I realized that after 9/11, I did a soccer recreation at Michigan Stadium, my complete household lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, now. I had no thought how will we react? How excited do you get? And it type of dawned on me on the way in which over to the stadium, 100,000 persons are gonna inform you what vitality degree to have, proper? In the event that they’re cheering, then it’s OK to cheer, it’s OK to hitch their degree of enthusiasm. That sticks with me for a protracted, very long time. That recreation sticks with me, and the sport that I did after Hurricane Katrina and the Superdome reopened in New Orleans in 2006. This extra than simply sports activities, that the connection to actual life may be very actual in these video games.

Q The Olympics.

A: I like that there’s any individual in all probability 50 miles from us, and any individual 5,000 miles from us, and proper now they’re coaching to win the identical competitors. I like the world really comes collectively. And I like that in PyeongChang in 2018, I used to be standing within the stadium and watched North Korea and South Korea, two international locations that hardly communicate and you can not cross the border, I watched them are available in as one unified group. The Olympics just isn’t excellent, it nonetheless has flaws in some ways, however there’s nothing that brings the world collectively just like the Olympics, and to be the prime-time host for the fifth time now, to do a job that two individuals who I idolized in Jim McKay and Bob Costas are the one two who’ve finished it extra usually than I’ve, I nonetheless can’t consider that that’s the case and I cherish each alternative to be on internet hosting the Olympics.

Q: The Kentucky Derby.

A: All of them have a mint julep of their fingers and so they’re betting. If we’re doing a 5 ¹/₂-hour TV present that’s one of many hardest exhibits (chuckle) that I work on yearly. The Derby’s such a cool spectacle. I’m glad that individuals in my household taught me the best way to learn the Racing Kind. It helped me (snigger) prepare to try this job.

Q: The Ryder Cup.

A: The Ryder Cup was an incredible occasion. I don’t like the place it’s proper now. I believe it’s gotten progressively uglier, and I hope that they will pull it again to the place it must be the place it’s an incredible passionate competitors but it surely doesn’t cross the road, and this yr it did, sadly.

Q: Favourite interview topics?

A: Tiger. At all times nice to speak to. In a 1-on-1 interview, was at all times actually insightful. … Peyton Manning was at all times a deal with to interview. Manufacturing conferences with Peyton Manning was simply essentially the most enriching, fulfilling expertise as a result of he knew precisely the best way to reply every query for every particular person within the room. … And Kobe [Bryant]. Sitting down doing interviews with Kobe was simply actually cool. There was simply one thing about the way in which he had a command of topic and a command of the room that was completely different than others.

Q: Cris Collinsworth.

A: One of the best companion you would have subsequent to you. Cares about folks on the present. Smartest man within the room with out performing it. Curiosity off the charts. Keen to be taught. You couldn’t ask for any individual higher to be subsequent to to your first alternative to do the most important factor in your small business and have Cris by your aspect.

Q: Al Michaels.

A: Gold commonplace. Nobody has ever been higher calling soccer, and has loved a profession that can be unmatched by anybody who does this going ahead.

Q: Jon Gruden.

A: Nice companion. Was the one that supplied me a PhD in soccer. I understood the sport a lot extra due to Jon, he opened so many doorways, and was so beneficiant to everyone on our group. Everyone who labored on that Monday night time group loved Jon being round.

Q: Hubie Brown.

A: Strolling right into a room with Hubie was like strolling into the room with the president. Individuals beloved, revered, revered Hubie. I spent 10 years within the basketball enviornment subsequent to Hubie, and it’s one thing that I cherish, and each cellphone name with him is particular. He has at all times felt like household to me since we began working collectively, and nonetheless does to this present day.

Q: Ian Eagle.

A: One in every of my greatest buddies. Proud to say that he interned for me after I had my first job. And he’s the second-best Eagle broadcaster that I do know. I say that lovingly.

Q: Al Roker.

A: There’s not an individual who generates extra pleasure with the folks round him than Al. To fill in on “The At the moment Present” final yr for every week, and sit subsequent to Al Roker was one of many coolest experiences I’ve ever had in my profession. He’s a gem, a treasure, and I like the actual fact I can name him a buddy.

Q: Chris Berman.

A: Outlined a technology of sportscasting. Introduced an vitality to highlights and a enjoyable degree to sports activities that nobody else has equaled. There have been many individuals who tried, however none did it the way in which Boomer did.

Q: Jim Nantz.

A: Good to be a buddy of the person who says, “Hey, buddies.” He’s essentially the most honest and considerate particular person you would ever be round, and from the time I used to be working at a CBS affiliate in Syracuse and interviewing the nationwide voice when he’d come to city to name a recreation till now once we are friends and have a really comparable job, he has by no means modified.

Q: Jim Boeheim.

A: So grateful that he by no means crushed me in a press convention. With out his capacity to teach and create that nice ambiance, I don’t know if I might love basketball and even sports activities as a lot as I do. We had extra nice days and nights due to Syracuse basketball, and he was as large a purpose as anybody.

Q: Invoice Belichick.

A: Tremendous Bowl 40, co-hosting the second set on the ABC pregame present, my analyst was Invoice Belichick. One in every of my favourite days in soccer was I went as much as Foxborough and met with him, and he laid out the sport plan for the Seahawks’ Tremendous Bowl towards the Steelers. And within the final second of the pregame that he was on, Invoice informed us what to search for. He mentioned when the Steelers get round midfield and have a primary down, that’s once they prefer to run their trick performs. In that recreation, the Steelers ran a trick play to Antwaan Randle-El for a landing. I believe he’s sensible, the Corridor of Fame snub is so incorrect.

Q: Aaron Rodgers.

A: Such an fascinating … character. Unbelievable participant, however perhaps as sensible as anybody you ever speak to. Has the solutions for all the things, in a great way. I believe would make an incredible broadcaster if he ever selected to go down that street. I’ve beloved my time round him.

Q: Joe Namath.

A: So, Namath was the idol to my household. In a household of Jets followers, point out Joe Willie and everyone simply smiled. The probabilities to get to interview him or be stood subsequent to him or take photos with him nonetheless is fairly cool. It’s simply a kind of that you just go, “Man, this isn’t one thing that I ever thought would occur in my life.” Coolest man in each room he walks in. Joe Namath and Clyde.

Q: John Harbaugh.

A: The one purpose I’m upset that he’s again in teaching is as a result of he can be nearly as good a broadcaster as anybody. Assume he’s an incredible communicator. Excellent rent for the Giants. They want an grownup within the room who’s been there and finished it, who’s gonna know what successful soccer must appear to be and isn’t gonna be figuring issues out within the course of. At the moment, he’s the fitting man for this group.

Q: Michael Jordan.

A: Nonetheless as easy as ever. Sitting throughout from him and speaking basketball is a deal with. He nonetheless loves the sport as a lot as any athlete I’ve ever spoken to. I like the truth that we had the prospect to only focus on his views on the place basketball is correct now, and let folks hear from him the place the sport is and the place it’s going, and the considerations he has about the place the sport’s going.

Q: Broadcasters and announcers you admired rising up?

A: Marv [Albert], initially, I believe. When you listened to Mike Breen or Ian Eagle or myself or many, many others, all of us have traits of Marv. He’s the person who launched so many careers with out us even understanding him until afterward. … One of the best full sportscaster, referred to as all the things, inspiration for generations of individuals to comply with. … Bob Murphy. I beloved to listen to Completely happy Recap rising up as a child. … Len Berman, who had such an effective way of doing native sports activities and highlights, and Costas. I beloved listening to John Sterling the radio speak present host, and coping with callers, simply jabbing away at callers and him jabbing again at them and yelling at folks. That was sports activities speak radio earlier than anyone even knew what sports activities speak radio was. All of these nice voices in New York have been very influential to a child with out cable TV and AM radio in New York.

Q: What was your boyhood dream?

A: My boyhood dream was to be the voice of the Rangers. In sixth grade, at P.S. 79 in Queens, we have been requested to do, “The place do you assume you’ll be on December thirty first of 1999?” And at that time I used to be 12.

Q: Did you may have a boyhood idol?

A: Probably not, no. … I needed to be like all of the sportscasters, I actually did. At a really early level in Bayside Excessive College in my sophomore yr when my fledgling baseball profession became being a defensive alternative and pinch-runner, in fall ball earlier than the group was even made within the spring, the writing was on the wall that my athletic profession was gonna should comply with both commentating or sports activities medication, it was not gonna be as a participant.

Q: How did the commentating half start?

A: I don’t know why, I at all times had a love for sportscasting. When you ask my mother, who’s nonetheless alive and lives out on Lengthy Island, she would inform you that I pretended to be a sportscaster as just a little child. My grandfather — I used to be raised by a single mother, my grandparents lived upstairs from us. My grandfather’s second job was working as one of many safety folks at Shea Stadium, he would convey residence media guides for me and I’d love getting a Nationwide League skinny media information and studying via it. And after I had the prospect to go to work with him after I was just a little bit older, I didn’t care about assembly the baseball gamers, I needed to fulfill the broadcasters. So from a younger age, this was at all times what I needed to do.

Q: Did you follow at residence?

A: I’m positive I referred to as quite a lot of video games to myself or over the TV, as a bunch of youngsters did rising up who do that now. There’s not some tape sitting round of me calling a recreation as a 9- or a 10-year-old, however yeah, I performed fake sportscaster usually sufficient, for positive.

Q: What was it like rising up a Jets fan?

A: Effectively, it was tormenting, and I’m glad that like childhood allergic reactions, I’ve outgrown that. I beloved the Jets, I beloved rising up going to Shea Stadium and sitting within the higher deck. I beloved strolling throughout the bridge and Roosevelt Avenue with scorching chocolate and my Uncle Frank and going to video games as I used to be rising up. That’s the place I fell in love with sports activities, and the NFL. And I cried the day Richard Todd threw A.J. Duhe three balls [Mud Bowl]. That was the low level of my fandom in sports activities till Indiana beat Syracuse within the faculty basketball championship in 1987.

Q: Who have been your favourite Jets gamers?

A: Jerome Barkum, Freeman McNeil. I at all times believed that Johnny “Lam” Jones was gonna change into decide. It by no means labored out that approach. And I assumed Wesley Walker was simply so easy and good and at all times deserved higher.

Q: Syracuse’s WAER radio?

A: Best faculty radio station ever. Interval. No argument. With all due respect to WFUV and my Fordham buddies. Have a look at the legacy of the variety of folks from Marty Glickman and Dick Clark all through, nobody can match the individuals who come from there.

Q: Bob Costas was your first visitor on ESPN Radio.

A: It was surreal as a result of I gained the primary Bob Costas Scholarship at Syracuse, and to interview, get to know after which change into buddies with an individual you look as much as is all you would ever ask for.

Q: Three dinner company?

A: Ronald Reagan, [Barack] Obama, Arnold Palmer.

Q: Favourite singers/entertainers?

A: [Frank] Sinatra and [Bruce] Springsteen.

Q: Favourite meal?

A: Rooster parm as a result of it measures the standard of an Italian restaurant — you get sauce, cheese, pasta and the way they put together their meats or poultry.

Q: Your No. 1 rooster parm place?

A: High quality Italian within the metropolis.

Q: As a New Yorker, which group will win the following championship: Knicks, Mets, Giants or Jets?

A: (Snicker) Oh my God! The Knicks have the items. … I’ll go Knicks. However assume that the Mets spend a lot sooner or later it’s gonna work out. However I’ll go Knicks.

Q: How usually are you acknowledged?

A: It’s humorous, after an Olympics, or a stint on “The At the moment Present,” I discover that you just get acknowledged a bit extra. It’s nonetheless odd, but it surely’s a part of the job. It’s not an element that I search, but it surely’s an element that I perceive.

Q: What are you most pleased with about what you’ve achieved?

A: I’ve labored exhausting to earn the alternatives to succeed, and earn the belief of the individuals who have given me these alternatives and never allow them to down. On the finish of the day, our job just isn’t that tough, however I do admire the truth that exhausting work can nonetheless get you locations, and there was no silver spoon on this, so to get pleasure from these years of those nice occasions, date again to calling semipro soccer and highschool soccer on native TV in Syracuse within the late ’80s, and to have an opportunity to do issues just like the Tremendous Bowl and the Olympics in the identical day — they have been so out of my thoughts that they weren’t even a part of a dream. Like your dream stopped approach earlier than you considered this. So to be right here and doing it now, it’s nonetheless surreal. Nevertheless it’s fairly enjoyable.

Q: Is there anybody I didn’t point out that you’d wish to point out?

A: My hero’s my mother. My mother who watches all the things I do. She sacrificed quite a bit after I was a child to offer me the prospect to go to varsity, chase my dream, raised me as a single mother again within the ’70s. She is my hero, and I’m simply tremendous glad that she will get an opportunity to see me reside out my skilled dream on the Tremendous Bowl.