As Curt Menefee approaches the desk to host Super Bowl coverage for FOX Sports, he understands the eminence and prestige the stage holds. After all, the NFL routinely draws strong viewership throughout the year, but there is usually just one company that has the U.S. television rights for the coveted championship matchup.
FOX Sports will present the game for the third time in six years, which is taking place from Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. In previous Super Bowls, the network has aired a five-and-a-half hour pregame show in addition to extensive halftime and postgame coverage. The content surrounding the live game broadcast traditionally contains opinions, insightful interviews and sponsored elements as a comprehensive group of viewers tune in for the action.
Menefee, who has been the host of FOX NFL Sunday for nearly two decades, has learned the importance of endurance for the assignment over the years. Whereas he usually works eight hours in the studio during a Sunday in the regular season, the Super Bowl broadcast effectively involves him and his colleagues in front of the camera for that duration. Exhibiting strong rapport and congeniality, Menefee and his teammates on FOX NFL Sunday seek to bring viewers onto the gridiron through a show premised in football but rooted in entertainment.
“I just learned to be myself, and I’ve been fortunate enough that I learned that early on is that you can’t go out and try and pretend you’re somebody else, you can’t go out and try to do the show for somebody else,” Menefee said. “You got to do what feels natural to you, what comes natural, and also I think that helps you get through a long day as well and pace yourself.”
When Menefee first landed the job to host FOX NFL Sunday in 2006, he remembers speaking with FOX Sports executive David Hill about what he should do on the show. In response, Hill told him not to screw up the program, leading Menefee to think that if the show did not extend its sublime 12-year run, it would ultimately be his fault. Refusing to rest on his laurels, he approached the job with a keen focus and avidity towards crafting a stellar studio program.
“Bill Richards is our executive producer – he is a large, large part – but Eric Shanks and Brad Zager and all those people that are involved behind the scenes, I think they look at it the same way,” Menefee said. “And it’s not just a football show – I think you see that when you look at the baseball studio show or Big Noon Kickoff or all the other things that we do that nobody ever just sits back and goes, ‘That’s good enough. Why don’t we just keep doing the same thing?’”
As he continued hosting the program, Menefee went back to college and obtained a Master’s degree in public policy and administration from Northwestern University in 2022. Upon his graduation, he engaged in multiple conversations with company executives, including FOX Television Stations chief executive officer Jack Abernethy, about potential opportunities with the entity. In the end, Menefee agreed to expand his role and serve as the co-host of Good Day New York on WNYW FOX 5.
The new venture has resulted in Menefee having to take cross-country flights between New York and Los Angeles on a weekly basis, a 2,400-mile commute. After all, Menefee has a penchant for travel and exploration and has currently visited 97 countries across all seven continents. Menefee’s global odyssey has been fueled by an insatiable curiosity for discovery and storytelling, inherent characteristics that he has demonstrated across both enterprises in different genres.
“I love talking to people and having conversations and picking their brain, and when you’re doing a football show, it’s everything centered on football,” Menefee said. “This provided an opportunity for me to kind of explore some different things and maybe scratch some different itches and dabble my toes in a couple of different arenas because with Good Day New York, we’re doing hard news, we’re doing political interviews, we’re doing celebrity interviews, we have musicians on.”
Due to the heightened workload, Menefee has had to alter his routine of preparing for episodes of FOX NFL Sunday, but he is able to carve out significant time while confined to the airplane cabin. While traveling the country, he dives into preparation, so he is ultimately more informed and ready to execute his role. Before he arrives at cruising altitude though, Menefee takes part in a call with producers to gather an idea of the direction in which the show is moving. Ahead of that discussion, he is communicating with personnel from around the NFL to gain a more intricate pulse of what is taking place.
“I don’t want to compare myself to a player, but it’s like being an athlete in that you can’t wait for gameday to get ready, so my preparation goes through the week, and it’s been an adjustment by adding Good Day New York duties to it,” Menefee said. “I don’t have as much free time to sit back, and whether it’s to make phone calls or text people now a majority or watching games, I still do some of that stuff, but it has to be more condensed.”
Amid his tenure on the show, Menefee has primarily worked with the same studio team of Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson, Jay Glazer and Rob Gronkowski. On Saturday afternoons, he watches college football games with Bradshaw and Johnson while also discussing the forthcoming show. In describing their chemistry, Menefee references how the show abstains from “tall poppy syndrome,” a phenomenon connoting that if one wildflower has grown too high, the others will kill the root, so it does not surpass the aggregate.
“I think the fact that we have a genuine relationship, all of us, we don’t do that,” Menefee said. “We don’t worry about who’s shining this segment [or] who’s shining on this day. We all just kind of go, ‘Okay, we’re in this as a team.’ You know when they say, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats,’ and I genuinely think that’s how we look at it, but that’s because we’re really friends.”
Developing and conveying talent while also establishing and maintaining a professional network has been instrumental in Menefee’s success within the business. When he speaks to aspiring professionals, he emphasizes the importance of demonstrating an indefatigable work ethic and how it encourages established veterans to assist others. Growing up in Atlanta, Menefee took a leap of faith by cold-calling CNN Sports broadcaster Fred Hickman to ask about his experience at Coe College. After the discussion, he ended up attending the school and kept in touch with Hickman, who helped him land an internship at CNN Sports in the summer following his freshman year.
“I logged the games, and I would stay late at night, learn how to edit, hang out with the editors [and] hang out with some of the producers and writers,” Menefee recalled, “and [I] took the initiative to kind of use the opportunity of being in a place that had all the resources that CNN had at that time.”
Graduating college with three years of reporting experience at KCRG-TV, Menefee traveled to various markets around the country to cover sports. The journey eventually brought him to Dallas where he served as sports director of KTVT-TV and was also one of the first hosts on 1310 The Ticket. From there, he moved to New York contributing sports content on WNYW-TV news coverage while also reporting on broadcasts of Yankees, Jets and Giants games.
FOX Sports approached Menefee in 1997 and decided to assign him to call NFL games in Europe despite having no play-by-play experience. He worked alongside Brian Baldinger over the ensuing decade and started calling games both domestically and abroad on a full-time basis just before the turn of the century. The national endeavor propelled Menefee into the spotlight as he became a regular presence on FOX Sports programming, and he eventually made the transition to studio coverage in 2006.
“My job is to facilitate and put the people that are knowledgeable in the best positions they can be and to keep things moving along,” Menefee said, “and that’s how I’ve always approached it because I’ve always looked at myself as just a member of the team, no matter what.”
Effectuating the success of his colleagues comes through being aware of the configuration and sources of contributions. For example, Menefee will notice if analysts are providing a surfeit of expertise in a given segment and aim to make adjustments as necessary. Furthermore, if there is a salient topic meriting extended conversation, he will allot more time and make it up later on.
“You’re doing Good Day New York and you’re like, especially at the end of the show, ‘How much time’s left in this segment?,’ and you just have a feel for it, and so I don’t look at it as a problem [or] anything that’s hard,” Menefee said. “I’ve been blessed, look, that I have the ability to talk while someone’s talking in my ear and counting backwards from 10, so it’s not the most difficult thing to do in the world.”
The show recently continued its tradition of visiting a US military installation for Veterans Day in an episode honoring former and active-duty military. This past November, the show aired a two-hour special from Naval Base San Diego, recognizing the troops and putting things in perspective. Menefee hopes that the program conveys the earnest venerability and appreciation for military members, who display bravery and sacrifice to protect liberty and freedom.
“I’m on a set with a bunch of Hall of Famers,” Menefee said. “They get to see them in person and play catch with them and talk to them, and so it means a lot to them, which amazes you because you don’t think of it that way. I’m just thinking, ‘Oh, we’re a silly football show, and we’re here just trying to give them love and they give us twice as much back.’ It’s such a great experience – it really is.”
Since 2013, the FOX NFL Sunday program has been preceded by the hour-long FOX NFL Kickoff program, which has bolstered the overall coverage of the league on Sundays. Having a lead-in program covering the same subject matter ultimately serves as an advantage for Menefee and his colleagues in that it enhances the football atmosphere at the company. The show also provides opportunities for athletes who are recently retired to become immersed within the FOX Sports universe.
“I just think that, again, it’s been a great chance for FOX to kind of expand its football footprint because it is the bread and butter of our network,” Menefee said. “Yes, we do the World Series in baseball and we do the World Cup and ‘FOX Sport,’ as it started out in ‘94 and John Madden used to joke, is now ‘FOX Sports’ legitimately, but it is about football. Between the NFL and college football, that is the identity of our network, and that’s one of the reasons I love it.”
Thinking back on the debut of the show, Menefee acknowledges that FOX Sports wanted to be edgy and something different. As time has progressed, the company has imparted a sense of family, and he hopes that the audience cares about their discussions. Through feedback gleaned amid his worldwide voyages, Menefee has gained a more elaborate understanding of the show’s impact and the indelible legacy it has built in sports television.
“I’ve never had anyone say to me, ‘You guys did a great job of breaking down the Cover 2 last week,’” Menefee articulated. “It’s always that, ‘Hey, you guys were really funny when Terry did this and you guys busted his chops, or when Michael said this and you guys laughed it off.’ Those kinds of things are what people enjoy, and I think that only happens because of the relationships that we have with one another both in front of and behind the camera.”
While Menefee does not take any opportunities for granted in the media business, he hopes to retire someday and look back on his career with pride. Until that presumptive occurrence takes place, he hopes to present no reasons for the company to replace him or move in another direction. As Menefee takes the air with a wealth of experience and dedication, he aims to illustrate his skillset without demanding the spotlight, instead opting to illuminate those around him with effervescence grounded in humility and gratitude.
“One of the great lines I always go back to – I think it was the first time I [saw] U2, which would have been in Düsseldorf, Germany while I was in NFL Europe – but back in 2000, and I remember Bono during an encore saying, ‘Thank you for giving us a great life,’ and I always remember that because this job and this career has allowed me and my wife to have a really, really special life,” Menefee explained, “but so many people are a part of getting me here that I think I owe it to the universe, to karma, to whatever you want to chalk it up to, to try and help somebody else do the same.”
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Derek Futterman is an associate 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, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
