Curt Menefee called his first NFL regular season game in 12 years on Saturday night. The host of Fox NFL Sunday was in the booth for the Texans’ win over the Jets alongside Steve Mariucci and Nate Burleson.
After the game, he told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch that he truly enjoyed the experience, but he isn’t ready to give up his regular assignment. “I will be honest and say I’d forgotten how much fun it is to do games. I would never trade being in the studio to do it, but, man, is it an awesome supplement.”
Menefee said the assignment was born out of concern for his colleague Joe Buck. He told Deitsch that when Fox won the broadcast rights to Thursday Night Football it became clear that the network would have to expand its play-by-play roster.
“At that time, it wasn’t clear how Joe Buck’s schedule would play out with both the World Series and TNF games in October. Also, Fox has to produce the Saturday games in December as part of the deal, and we usually have a full slate on Sunday. We discussed the possibility of my doing a game or two in the booth. I did a test game with Mariucci and it went well.”
Despite his modesty, Menefee actually has plenty of play-by-play experience. He called games for Fox from 1998-2006 before replacing James Brown on Fox NFL Sunday and he has called Seattle Seahawks preseason games for the last 12 years.
