With the matchup for Super Bowl LVIII set between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, anticipation is palpable to determine which National Football League team will hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Throughout championship Sunday, there was extensive coverage of both the AFC and NFC tilts that included in-person studio programs from both CBS Sports and FOX Sports. During the AFC Championship Game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md., CBS Sports faced an ostensible technical difficulty for its Verizon Halftime Report featuring the cast of The NFL Today.
When the program took the air, the six panelists were all backlit and led to viewers quickly taking notice and sharing their thoughts on social media. Boomer Esiason, who serves as an analyst on The NFL Today in addition to his role as co-host of Boomer & Gio on WFAN and CBS Sports Network, was on hand for the proceedings and recalled his experience. The complications began when he was preparing for a segment with colleague Phil Simms to discuss Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Suddenly, the Baltimore’s Marching Ravens group took the field and made it difficult for Simms to hear or see the monitor.
“It was hilarious,” Esiason said, “and if you live it, it’s pretty funny.”
The complications continued at the desk when banks of lights lost power just before taking the air. Esiason explained that when the show goes on the road, there are a plethora of wires leading to different sources requiring power. He was told that someone tripped over one of the wires and severed the electrical flow to the socket in the lightbox. Esiason then informed J.J. Watt, who is in his first year on the network, and they quickly discovered that the outage also affected their monitors.
“I guess it was the same lightbox, so as we were speaking over what was supposed to be the highlights of the first half that we never saw, but supposedly they did run,” Esiason explained, “and I thought everybody did an unbelievable job given the circumstances.”
The lights eventually flickered back on, but by then the musical performance was taking place. Esiason felt like the cast of the show was in a club before the second half got underway, ultimately leading to the Chiefs’ victory.
“Because of the amount of wires and you have all sorts of tarps on the sidelines – you have things covering wires – you could see how it could happen, and it happened,” Esiason said. “What can I tell you? I don’t know. It was live TV – you’ve just got to go through it; you’ve just got to slam right through it.”
