NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football hosted a conference call on Sept. 1 to preview the upcoming NFL season.
The announce team of Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, and sideline reporter Melissa Stark joined coordinating producer Rob Hyland as they answered questions from the media.
As NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football prepares for its 17th season, viewers will see some new faces on their television screens come week one.
Melissa Stark
Stark joins the NBC Sports family after the departure of Michele Tafoya, who sidelined from 2011-2021. Stark previously was a sideline reporter for ABC’s Monday Night Football from 2000-03 and was host and reporter for the NFL Network since 2011.
“A lot has changed in the last 20 years in terms of not necessarily just the standard, but the support,” said Stark when discussing the differences from when she last was a sideline reporter. “You have the monitors down there. You have — I do have a lot more support.”
The Hall of Fame game on Aug. 4 gave viewers a first-hand look at the team working together for the first time. However, the chemistry between the three was there even before the game had kicked off.
“I’m the newest member, but we’ve all worked together in some sense. I haven’t necessarily worked with Cris, but we’ve talked on the phone a number of times; we’ve done a ton of dinners. We all have an incredible camaraderie from the start.”
Mike Tirico
Longtime play-by-play announcer Al Michaels will be replaced by Tirico this upcoming season. Michaels left NBC to become the new voice of “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon this season.
Tirico is no stranger to working at NBC Sports. Since joining the network in 2016, Tirico has called 22 NFL games alongside Collinsworth.
“It really is hard to believe that it doesn’t feel like a new team. I don’t even know if that makes sense or not,” said Collinsworth when asked about the chemistry between him and Tirico. “Mike and I communicate very easily. We’ve done a full season’s worth of games plus together. We’re all friends.”
Before leaving for Amazon, Michaels and Collinsworth worked together for 16 years, calling games on Sunday Night Football. They built a great friendship on the call with the time they spent together.
“It was great,” said Collinsworth. “You just knew what each other were thinking, and it just falls into place.”
As Tirico steps into the chair that Michaels once sat in, he feels more than prepared for what’s to come.
“For me, there’s no angst about being that next person in that chair.”
