Sunday was the Super Bowl as the Rams beat the Bengals, 23-20. Here’s a quick recap of NBC’s coverage. I’ll have more in Tuesday’s newsletter, looking back at the ratings and other reactions to the game, the coverage, the halftime show and the commercials.
Black coaches
Yes, Sunday was a day to celebrate the most popular sport in America. Super Bowl Sunday has become something of an unofficial holiday in the U.S. But credit NBC for tackling the biggest issue facing the NFL at the moment: the lack of Black head coaches.
NBC’s Super Bowl host, Mike Tirico, led a frank and in-depth discussion on the topic. That was followed by comments from NBC analyst and former NFL coach Tony Dungy, who is Black. Dungy said, “The process is broken right now. For minority hiring, yes, but for coaching in general.” The segment ran for more than nine minutes — an unusually long time to spend on any one topic even during a five-hour pregame show. But this topic deserves it, and NBC handled it well.
Biden and Holt
Speaking of which, in a solid Super Bowl pregame interview taped last Thursday and conducted by “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, President Joe Biden blasted the NFL for its lack of diversity among head coaches. Biden told Holt, “The whole idea that a league that is made up of so many athletes of color, as well as so diverse, that there’s not enough African American qualified coaches to manage these NFL teams, it just seems to me that it’s a standard that they’d want to live up to. It’s not a requirement of law, but it’s a requirement, I think, of just some generic decency.”
Al Michaels and NBC
Was the Super Bowl the last game for Al Michaels at NBC Sports?
He’s still, for my money, the best football play-by-play announcer in the business. But his contract is up at NBC and the word is NBC is ready to hand over the “Sunday Night Football” play-by-play duties to Tirico. Michaels is reportedly being wooed by Amazon, which will have a “Thursday Night Football” package next season and might offer Michaels up to $11 million a year. Sunday was Michaels’ 11th Super Bowl, tying him with the late Pat Summerall for most all time. And his call on Sunday was spot-on … as you would expect.
It also was also the final game for sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who announced earlier this season that she was leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Tirico on the go
On the topic of Tirico, what a week. He was just in Beijing as prime-time Olympics host and then he jetted back to Los Angeles to host the Super Bowl. The Washington Post’s Sam Fortier reported that Tirico ended up traveling 12,000 miles to pull off the double duty. Tirico will host the rest of the Olympics from NBC’s studios in Stamford, Connecticut.
We smelled it
I get the hype for the Super Bowl, and that’s as much of a show as a football game at this point. But after the teams coming on the field and Mickey Guyton’s superb rendition of the national anthem and the coin toss with legend Billie Jean King, didn’t The Rock’s over-the-top final introduction just before kickoff seem a bit … much?
A+ coverage
The best part of the actual game broadcast, including the work of analyst Cris Collinsworth, was NBC treating it for what it was — a football game. Casual fans are going to watch, partly for the game, but partly for everything else, including the commercials. The diehard fans, of course, are going to watch, too. But you don’t want to insult them by dummying down the broadcast. Treat it like a football game, call it like you do during the season, and you’re going to end up with a solid broadcast. That’s what Michaels, Collinsworth and the entire NBC team did.
Best ever?
The halftime show was tremendous. There’s always a recency bias with these things, but the show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent is already being touted as one of the best ever — well, at least behind Prince’s 2007 performance. And did you notice Eminem kneeling? It was an obvious nod to NFL players, including Colin Kaepernick, who have kneeled in protest over racial inequality and other injustices.
This piece originally appeared in The Poynter Report, our daily newsletter for everyone who cares about the media. Subscribe to The Poynter Report here.
