Sunday starts with a huge game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins from Germany and ends with the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals playing on Sunday Night Football. The game will be on NBC, and kickoff for Sunday Night Football is at 8:20 p.m. ET.
It will be the third time the Bills and Bengals have played in the last 11 months. On Jan. 2, the Monday Night Football game in Cincinnati was called in the first half after Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin suffered an on-field medical situation called commotion carditis. Three weeks later, the Bengals went to Buffalo and defeated the Bills in the Divisional Round.
When Does NBC’s Coverage Start?
Maria Taylor will be the host of Football Night in America, which kicks off NBC’s pregame coverage at 7 p.m. ET. Former head coaches Tony Dungy and Jason Garrett and former players Devin McCourty, Chris Simms, and Rodney Harrison will provide analysis. NFL insider Mike Florio, fantasy sports expert Matthew Berry, and Jac Collinsworth, Cris’ son, are also on the show.
Who Are the Game Announcers for Bills-Bengals?
Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth are in the booth, with Melissa Stark as the sideline reporter and Terry McAulay as the rules analyst.
Tirico is in his second season as the play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Football. He joined NBC in 2012 and has hosted several events, including the Olympics, the Indianapolis 500, and golf’s U.S. Open and Open Championship. Tirico spent 25 years at ESPN and was the Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer for 10 seasons.
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Stark is in her second season as a sideline reporter for NBC. Along with NBC, she worked for ESPN and the NFL Network during her career. At ESPN, Stark was a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football from 2000 to 2002. After leaving ESPN, she was a Today Show correspondent and hosted multiple shows and events on the NFL Network.
McAulay joined NBC as a rules analyst in 2018 after 20 years as an on-field NFL official. He was a referee for 17 seasons and was assigned to the Super Bowl three times.
Cris Collinsworth’s Connection to the Bengals
Collinsworth was a wide receiver at Florida before being selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 1981 draft. As a rookie, he became the first player in franchise history to have 1,000 receiving yards in a season. The Bengals reached the Super Bowl for the first time during his rookie season. Collinsworth had five catches for 107 yards in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XVI.
In his final season, he helped the Bengals make a second Super Bowl appearance, another loss to Joe Montana and the 49ers. Cincinnati defeated Buffalo in the postseason in both Super Bowl runs when Collinsworth played.
Collinsworth was selected to the Pro Bowl three times and had four seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards. He finished his career with 417 receptions, 6,698 yards, and 36 touchdowns in 107 games from 1981 to 1988.
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