Cris Collinsworth has been a fixture calling NFL games for decades. And on this week’s edition of Sunday Night Football, the longtime NFL analyst will reach an impressive milestone.
The game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will be Collinsworth’s 500th game as an NFL analyst.
The former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver began his media career even as his playing days were coming to an end. And perhaps the most impressive thing is that he has been equally adept as a studio analyst and a game analyst. He even worked one game as a sideline reporter during the 1994 NFL playoffs for NBC joining Marv Albert and Paul Maguire for a telecast.
His career stops include the studio at HBO and Fox as part of iconic casts for two of the top studio shows of all time in Inside the NFL and Fox NFL Sunday. He also called games for NBC, with his first game broadcast taking place alongside the late Cleveland Browns radio voice Jim Donovan back in 1990. While with Fox Sports, he was transitioned to the broadcast booth as a lead analyst for the first time when he joined Joe Buck and Troy Aikman as the replacements for the legendary duo of Pat Summerall and John Madden in 2002.
After moving back to the studio for NBC’s Football Night in America when the network won the rights to Sunday Night Football in 2006, Collinsworth once again replaced Madden, this time alongside Al Michaels, when he retired in 2009.
It’s a perch that Collinsworth has held for many years since and will continue to hold through NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LXIV in 2030.
In their announcement on his 500th game, NBC also compiled some fascinating stats from the television career of Cris Collinsworth.
He’s called 402 games for NBC, 64 for Fox, 22 for NFL Network, and several other games simulcast on multiple networks. His broadcast partners are a who’s who of sports media legends with Al Michaels topping the list at 263 games, Mike Tirico in second place at 95, and Joe Buck in third at 56. Tom Hammond, Bryant Gumbel, Marv Albert, and Dick Stockton are just a few of the others Collinsworth has slid in next to over the years.
His most frequent stadium is Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia while his most-called team (to no surprise) is the Dallas Cowboys. Given those two facts you won’t be surprised that he’s called more Cowboys-Eagles games than any other matchup.
And perhaps the most impressive part of his career is that his work hasn’t dropped in the slightest. Through his work with Pro Football Focus, he has remained connected with the current game in a way that many others who played long ago have not. And most of his career has been part of the top broadcast team in the sport and the most watched primetime program in America on SNF. Yes, you can talk about some of his idiosyncrasies, as every broadcaster has. But in terms of longevity, consistency, and performance levels, there are few that could ever stand up to the CV of Cris Collinsworth.
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