Now here’s a guy who’s become inseparable from Patriots Super Bowls, whether he wants to be or not.
When Cris Collinsworth calls Super Bowl LX on Sunday, Feb. 8, alongside Mike Tirico, it will mark the sixth Super Bowl he’s worked as a broadcaster. Five of those six games have involved the New England Patriots,
Collinsworth has called five of New England’s 12 Super Bowl appearances, starting with Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, when the Patriots beat the Eagles on Fox in his first Super Bowl broadcast. He called XLVI in 2012, when the Giants beat the Patriots on NBC; XLIX in 2015, when the Patriots beat the Seahawks in the Malcolm Butler interception game; and LII in 2018, when the Eagles beat the Patriots on NBC. Now he returns for Sunday’s Patriots-Seahawks rematch, working his first Super Bowl with Tirico after 13 seasons alongside Al Michaels, who called that 2015 game with him.
The only Super Bowl Collinsworth has worked that didn’t involve New England was Super Bowl LVI in 2022, when the Rams beat the Bengals. That game carried personal significance for Collinsworth, who played eight seasons for Cincinnati and appeared in two Super Bowls for the Bengals, both losses to the 49ers in the 1980s.
Next Sunday’s game is a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX, which ended with Butler intercepting Russell Wilson at the goal line with 26 seconds remaining to preserve a 28-24 Patriots victory. The Seahawks were on the 1-yard line when Pete Carroll called a pass play instead of handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch, and Butler jumped the route to seal what remains one of the most debated play calls in football history. Collinsworth and Michaels were in the booth for that moment, and now Collinsworth returns 11 years later to call the rematch between the same two franchises.
Earlier this month, Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp name-dropped Collinsworth when he told reporters he regularly mutes NFL broadcasts when watching games with his kids so he can explain what’s actually happening on the field. The good news for Kupp is that he won’t have to worry about listening to Collinsworth’s analysis on Sunday, as he’ll be too busy trying to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl that Collinsworth is calling.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.