Following a tumultuous offseason in sports media that resulted in the movement of several established National Football League broadcasters, Mike Tirico found himself promoted to become the lead play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Football on NBC.
Tirico entered this role following Al Michaels, who called Sunday Night Football for 16 seasons with Cris Collinsworth and the late-John Madden before signing with Amazon Prime Video this offseason. The broadcast, which also features Collinsworth as a color commentator and Melissa Stark reporting from the sidelines, has been the number one show in primetime television for a record 11 consecutive seasons.
As a native of Queens, N.Y., Tirico attended Bayside High School where he realized that his dream of playing sports professionally was impractical and began thinking of ways to remain involved in the industry. Tirico considers himself to have been an avid sports fan when he was younger and always enjoyed listening to game broadcasts. He identified that by announcing the games, he would be able to build a viable career for himself and remain involved in sports as a media member.
Consequently, he began conducting research on how to achieve his goal of becoming a professional in a highly-competitive field.
“[I] found out at the time that some of my favorites – Bob Costas, Marv Albert, Len Berman – very popular and widely-respected broadcasters in New York were all Syracuse alums,” Tirico said. “I did some more digging and found out that Dick Stockton and Marty Glickman – and even Dick Clark in the American Bandstand-days and Ted Koppel are all Syracuse alums. I got very focused on trying to [go] to school there and was lucky enough to do that.”
While attending Syracuse University, Tirico made it a point to gain as much experience as he could, starting by broadcasting basketball, football, lacrosse, volleyball and other sports on WAER, the university’s student-run radio station. It was important for Tirico to attend a university with prominent alumni and a history of success – but sports broadcasting is not the only thing he studied as a student.
In addition to his broadcast journalism major within the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Tirico also studied political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Although he has a penchant for sports broadcasting, having previous experience and an understanding of news and current events serves to make media professionals more versatile.
“I think the collection of talented people there at the station gave you a good idea of who the best in your generation or class were going to be because a lot of the best were right there with you,” Tirico said. “I think we all made each other better along the way. That was a real influence for me – and a lot of the individuals there were an influence [on] me.”
At the end of his junior year, Tirico was hired by WTVH-5, a local CBS-affiliated television station in Syracuse, to deliver the weekend 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. sportscasts, effectively beginning his television career. Once he graduated Syracuse University in 1988, he remained in the area with WTVH-5 and was subsequently promoted as the outlet’s sports director, giving him early professional management experience outside the walls of the university.
“The experience and peers at Syracuse gave me the opportunity to test myself early on amongst the best in the industry,” Tirico said. “At that point, [it also] allowed me a chance to get on-air far earlier than I would have if I had gone to school somewhere else.”
In 1991, Tirico joined ESPN as a studio anchor where he contributed across its coverage of professional and collegiate sports. Additionally, he hosted an edition of SportsCenter with Jimmy Roberts where the duo updated viewers on the latest scores and news around the world of sports.
ESPN was the first national television station Tirico was ever employed by, and making the jump from working at a local station in Syracuse was initially challenging and brought him awareness of what skills he needed to improve on to ensure he would last and make a name for himself in the industry.
“There’s a lot of getting yourself up to speed for that and fortunately it was a great time at ESPN where we had the rights to so many different sports,” Tirico said. “[During the time I was there, SportsCenter] went from three half-hour shows a day to a constant presence [being] almost the wallpaper of the network; it was always around. That, I’m sure, was a big onus for me to be around that time of growth for ESPN and the SportsCenter franchise specifically.”
Two years later, Tirico hosted NFL Prime Monday, a new pregame show leading up to the network’s broadcast of Monday Night Football. Due to space limitations at ESPN’s studios, the show was broadcast out of a garage yet it transformed studio coverage of professional sports.
By introducing elements such as interviews with star players (conducted by former MTV VJ and SiriusXM DJ “Downtown” Julie Brown), utilizing an on-site field reporter for live stadium coverage and implementing debates between on-air talent and guests regarding the game, the way studio coverage leading up to live game broadcasts was forever changed. Additionally, the show had regular analysts including Craig James, Phil Simms and Joe Theissman, along with writers Mitch Albom, Skip Bayless and Michael Wilbon, all of whom would contribute their opinion and expertise to viewers.
The show led to the development of Monday Night Countdown which still airs on the network before Monday Night Football broadcasts featuring Buck and Troy Aikman, along with Peyton and Eli Manning in select weeks.
“We had in that show – 30 years ago – a variety of elements that were not in all the other pregame shows,” Tirico said. “….I’m really proud of the way that show got on the air. That was kind of a template for where pregame shows have evolved today.”
The evolution of technology and media consumption have engendered changes to the ways in which sports broadcasters prepare for a typical day at work. For example, when Mike Tirico and Sunday Night Football are covering the Green Bay Packers, Tirico recognizes the value in watching Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
Additionally when Tirico covered the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles matchup in late October, Tirico listened to New Heights, a podcast featuring Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his brother, Eagles center Jason Kelce.
“There’s so much out there right now that by the time you get to Sunday – really that hour before the games [during] those pregame shows, I want to know, ‘What have you learned from the broadcasters who are on-site there?,’” Tirico said.
“What are the opinions from the guys in the studio who over the years you’ve come to appreciate their views on what’s going to happen. It’s really become a preview [of] the games that are about to come up as opposed to, ‘Here are some stories from around the league from during the week.’”
As a host at ESPN, Tirico was given various opportunities to display his versatility as a play-by-play announcer across multiple sports calling games on both the professional and, when applicable, collegiate level on various platforms of dissemination. This included working as a play-by-play announcer for the NBA Finals on ESPN Radio with color commentators Hubie Brown and Dr. Jack Ramsey; hosting professional golf coverage on ABC Sports with analyst Curtis Strange; and anchoring College Football Scoreboard starting in 1993.
“The only things I really call now are football and golf,” Tirico said. “I miss the days when I called a variety of sports. I loved jumping into new sports and getting a chance to do them.”
Whether it be the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, FIFA World Cup, Daytona 500, Rose Bowl, NCAA Final Four, or U.S. Open Golf Championship, Tirico has had the chance to anchor coverage of long-established and historic sports traditions. Having worked in many different areas of professional sports demonstrates the chance he has been afforded to reach new audiences and bring viewers insightful and fascinating converge of these and other heralded realms of competition.
“Tiger Woods winning the career Grand Slam at St. Andrews,” Tirico said when asked of one of his most memorable moments working in sports media. “That had not happened but once before on live television and hasn’t happened since 2000. That was a remarkable moment to be there and see the fifth golfer win all four golf majors and to do it at the home of golf.”
In 2006 when Monday Night Football moved from being broadcast to ABC to being exclusively on ESPN, he became the fourth person to serve as the voice of the weekly program. Just as Tirico did leading up to this football season, he succeeded Al Michaels in the play-by-play role, as Michaels joined NBC Sports to call the inaugural season Sunday Night Football with Madden.
From the first Monday night broadcast on ESPN, Tirico was joined by Jon Gruden for live primetime NFL games and broke cable television viewership records in the process. It was during this time when Tirico experienced a powerful moment on the football field that transformed his view on sports broadcasting and remains carved in his memory.
“Our third regular season game was the New Orleans Saints against the Atlanta Falcons,” Tirico recalled. “That was the return to the Superdome post-Hurricane Katrina for the Saints and it was the day that reminds me forever that sports is not just a game; it’s not just a toy shop. It has incredible meaning and connection to the cities that host these teams over the years.”
After he anchored the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, Tirico made the decision to leave ESPN and join NBC Sports. He first appeared on the NBC Golf Channel calling play-by-play during the 2016 U.S. Open Golf Championship and concluded the tournament by hosting studio coverage.
A few months later, he was behind the desk working as a daytime host for coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a worldwide sporting tournament and cultural phenomenon that takes place once every four years.
Tirico always looked up to NBC primetime Olympics host Bob Costas throughout his journey in sports broadcasting. As a venerable graduate of Syracuse University, Costas worked with NBC Sports beginning in 1980 as a host and play-by-play announcer for football, basketball and baseball coverage.
In 1988, he was selected as the primetime host for the broadcast of the Olympic Games, a job he performed for 12 iterations of the event before retiring from the role in 2017. Tirico was chosen to step into the position – something he affirms is one of the most significant roles in his career.
Ironically enough, he had previously received the inaugural “Bob Costas Scholarship” at Syracuse University in 1987 which continues to be awarded annually to one of its acclaimed broadcast journalism students.
“There are a lot of people who host shows; there are a lot of people who do… play-by-play. There’s only been one person that has hosted the Olympics in primetime since the 90s and it’s Bob,” Tirico said. “I’ve had plenty of experience in this and I think it becomes easier as you go along because I have an established style.”
Hosting the Olympics expands upon the traditional role of a sports broadcaster since it involves many of the countries across the globe. Tirico’s previous experience at WTVH-5 in Syracuse in addition to his steady consumption of news media and college major of political science keeps him prepared for the event and able to cover it on a global scale for the viewing audience, primarily based in the United States.
“It’s far closer in the host role to news than sports because there’s so much geopolitics involved in the entire process of the Olympics no matter how much we continue to hope that it’s about competition,” Tirico said. “That’s the root and that’s the foundation, but politics always seems to find a way to come into play with the different organizing committees, national governing bodies and, of course, each nation’s delegation.”
Tirico is grateful for the leadership of both NBC Olympics Executive Producer and President Molly Solomon and Primetime Producer Rob Hyland in how they have elevated the coverage of the event. Moreover, he is excited to cover the games taking place in Paris, France starting in July 2024 and continue being part of the evolution of the broadcast in the years to follow.
“There’s not a better studio hosting job in our industry than being able to host the Olympics in primetime,” Tirico expressed. “It requires a lot of talented people behind the scenes [and] a lot of help in preparation, but that opening ceremony when more nations and delegations come [in]… than you have when the U.N. General Assembly gathers every fall shows you that nothing, nothing, nothing brings the world together like the Olympic games.
“To be the person who has this unique role of 17 straight nights hosting multiple hours of primetime TV to present the competition of the athletes of the world – it’s pretty cool.”
In the latter half of 2016, NBC announced that Tirico had been added as a play-by-play announcer for some of its professional football broadcasts, including three Sunday Night Football games and one Thursday Night Football game when the network had the rights.
One year later, Tirico was named the play-by-play voice of the Thursday Night Football franchise where he worked with analyst Cris Collinsworth on live game broadcasts. Now working regularly with Collinsworth on a week-by-week basis doing Sunday Night Football, the familiarity has lent itself to a broadcast where the commentators play off of each other’s strengths to bring viewers the best coverage possible.
“The good part was there was no real adjustment,” Tirico said on acclimating himself to the broadcasts this season. “….We were lucky enough to do about 20 games together – preseason and regular season… from Thursday nights to Sundays; different games along the way. Getting to know Cris and his family and all of that made it so easy to start from the beginning here this year.”
While the network lost the Thursday night rights to Fox the following season, Tirico was still busy as the play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame college football games, host of Triple Crown horse racing coverage along with the Indianapolis 500, a brief stint doing play-by-play for National Hockey League games, and the studio host for Football Night in America, which is the most-watched studio show in sports.
In an era where studio coverage is changing amid consumers being afforded more control over the content with which they engage, progression with the dynamism of the current time is fundamental for sustained growth. In some cases, the coverage is being eliminated entirely due to a lack of consumer interest concerning those working in that environment.
“I think there’s always going to be a future for shoulder programming before and after a game,” Tirico expressed. “I personally would like to see more of an emphasis on quality postgame programming. I think we spend so much time talking about what’s going to happen in a game and not an equal amount of time talking about why things happen within a game.”
Following Al Michaels as the full-time play-by-play announcer on Sunday Night Football was always the plan since he joined NBC Sports, according to a statement made to Deadline by NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua.
Developing his own style on the show was not something he was preoccupied with though, as his previous experience in other play-by-play roles had already given him the chance he needed to hone his craft.
While he respects the previous work Michaels did on the broadcasts, he seeks to make it his own and bring his own style to the broadcast. An example of such is the elimination of the infamous “Collinsworth Slide” at the start of broadcasts, which resulted from an opening visual containing solely then-play-by-play announcer Michaels talking to the audience about the game and the shot zooming out shortly thereafter when it was time to include the analyst.
Now, the broadcast begins with both the play-by-play announcer and color commentator on-screen, resulting in more air time for Collinsworth and the ability to quickly have a back-and-forth discussion.
“I’m not thinking, ‘Okay, I have to do this [in] this way because the person who was here before did it,’” Tirico said. “I don’t know why NBC hired me but I do know that they hired me for my skill set, not to mimic the person who came before me in any of the other jobs. Once you’re authentic in how you do a job, I think that’s the best way to approach following some of the great people in the history of our business no matter what their roles were.”
The program continues to put up stellar ratings with the new broadcast production team in place, posting season-high numbers in last week’s matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills. In fact, it was the most watched Week 8 edition of the show since 2015 with a 10.6 rating and viewership of 19.62 million people, according to Nielsen.
Additionally, Tirico made history earlier in the season when he called his 200th NFL game, a notable career milestone and a testament to his hard work and alacrity towards taking chances fostered from the moment he first recalled becoming interested in sports media.
Overall, the entirety of the NFL broadcast landscape is doing well under new media rights agreements and commentary teams, an ideal time for the industry to meet and exceed expectations as football continues to sustain its popularity.
“The industry has never been better,” Tirico said. “There are so many good production people working behind the scenes. The quality of the broadcasts in terms of information has never been higher – I don’t think many broadcasts overindulge in analytics and stats but find the key ones. I think the fans are served pretty well in terms of entertainment and options too, things like a Manningcast or something like that. Those things are good.”
As time progresses, it remains imperative for sports media to remain at the forefront of innovation and continually possess a willingness and ability to change when necessary. In anticipating shifts in media notwithstanding their impact, the industry figures to more effectively serve the fan; that is, rather than reacting to changes after they occur.
“I would say that we continue to all use information technology to push the envelope and I think the result has been some really good television production,” Tirico said. “If you look back 15 years ago and look now, the depth and quality of what you see is really, really good. I think the state of covering football is in great shape and as another generation of announcers and producers and executives and leaders come in here, they’ve grown up around people pushing the envelope for better football broadcasts. I think you’re going to continue to see that going forward.”
In the days leading up to February 13, 2022 – which was dubbed by NBC as “Super Gold Sunday” since the network was broadcasting both the Olympics and the Super Bowl on the same day – Tirico pulled off an unprecedented broadcast feat.
For the two weeks leading up to “The Big Game,” he woke up in Beijing, China where he hosted primetime Winter Olympics coverage. Later in the week, he took a flight from Beijing to Los Angeles to host pregame and postgame coverage of Super Bowl LVI between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams.
On that same day, he hosted primetime Olympics coverage from outside of SoFi Stadium, giving him the feat of contributing to coverage of both major sporting events within the same 24-hour period. Once the Rams hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy, Tirico was on the way to the NBC Sports studios in Stamford, CT to complete his primetime Olympics hosting – meaning he traveled over 12,000 miles in a week and adjusted to a 13-hour time difference.
“That’s never happened before because there’s never been that confluence in the calendar with the Super Bowl and the Olympics on the same network on the same day,” Tirico said. “I don’t know how often it’s going to happen again but the chance to be the host for both of those was [a] once-in-a-lifetime day that I’ll cherish forever.”
As Tirico embarks on the second half of his 17th consecutive season calling primetime NFL games – now as the lead play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Football – he looks back on his journey throughout sports media, grateful for the opportunities he has had and excited for what to come. One of those future endeavors, he hopes, is another chance to call basketball, the sport he originally began broadcasting while attending Syracuse University.
“I miss doing hoops games and basketball is the one I’ve never done that I’d love to do at some point,” Tirico expressed. “You’re at the point now where my career is so complete… and just to dabble in those and have the opportunity to do them would be cool for me.”
For aspiring professionals looking to work in sports media, Tirico advises them to be well-rounded and find niches in the industry that they are able to grow in and have a passion towards. Throughout his journey, Tirico was flexible and did not limit himself in what he was or was not able to do – a contributing reason as to why he has covered most professional sports in some capacity.
The reason broadcasters are ultimately chosen to be on-air not only pertains to their individual ability behind a microphone, but also in how they collaborate with their colleagues and work as a member of a team. Mastering those latter skills are just as essential to genuinely stand out from others vying for opportunities that can only be bestowed on one person.
“I think one of the most important things is being a good listener,” Tirico articulated. “I think our job is based on talking, but I think some of the most valuable things we need to do are listen. Listen to other broadcasts and hear what works; hear what you deem to be entertaining and informative…. If you’re lucky enough to not just like sports but love it, then this is as great a business as you could ever ask to be a part of.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
