While Al Michaels calls the play-by-play for Super Bowl 56, longtime sports announcer Mike Tirico is waiting in the wings. Could this mark Michaels’ final Super Bowl appearance, and could Tirico become the new primary face of NBC’s Super Bowl coverage?
Mike Tirico’s career
For more than 30 years, Tirico has covered sports locally (WTVH-TV, Syracuse, NY) and nationally (ESPN, ABC, and now NBC). In 2016, he joined Cris Collinsworth in the broadcast booth for a few Sunday Night Football contests and a Thursday Night Football game. The following year, he replaced Michaels for all NBC Thursday Night Football games.
Prior to joining NBC, Tirico was the voice of Monday Night Football between 2006 and 2015. Additionally, since 2017, Tirico has been the full-time play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame. In 2021, he was joined in the booth by Drew Brees, with the pairing considered likely candidates to take over the NFL Sunday Night Football booth in the near future.
Tirico has covered a wide range of sports as a broadcaster
Tirico has demonstrated acumen in a full range of sports beyond football — from basketball, to golf, to horse racing, to all aspects of the Olympic Games. At 55 years old, he’s squarely in his prime as a sports broadcaster.
This week has seen Tirico on NBC a lot. He is the primary host for NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage and spent the early part of the week in Beijing. He returned to the US early in the week, where he will continue to host the coverage as a studio host for Super Bowl 56.
After presenting the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night, Tirico will then return to hosting Sunday night’s Olympic coverage. He will continue to host the Olympic coverage from NBC’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, through the second week of the games.
It’s an extraordinary example of dedication to his craft and career and a reminder that Tirico can do it all.
Al Michaels’ career
The 77-year-old Michaels has been a broadcaster for more than 50 years. For sports fans of all ages, he’s been a consistent voice of generationally defining games and moments. From the 1980 US Men’s Hockey team’s shocking Olympic victory over the former Soviet Union to the historic San Francisco earthquake that upended the 1989 World Series, Michaels symbolizes the transformation of American sports into a societal cornerstone.
He has gradually relinquished responsibilities in recent years to lessen his workload. There is a possibility that Super Bowl 56 could be his final broadcast. If that happens, Tirico is a strong candidate to replace him. This season, Tirico started replacing Michaels for Sunday Night Football games, and he also called the Bengals-Raiders playoff game.
If NBC is, in fact, grooming Tirico for a primary role later this year, we might not get another opportunity to watch Michaels on football’s largest stage.