Thoughts on Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, commercials, new scorebug.
1. I might be the only person who felt this way, but for a close, competitive game that went down to the wire, the Rams' 23–20 win over the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI felt like a pretty nondescript and, at many times, boring football game.
The game didn’t have many big plays. We were treated to a lot of one-yard runs and the refs—as usual—had to come in late and ruin things, and the game ended with a whimper and not a bang.
That’s how NBC’s broadcast felt, too. There wasn’t anything that stood out about the performances of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, in what may have been their last game together. They gave normal, solid efforts. This is actually a compliment. Michaels and Collinsworth are so good that it’s hard for them to take their games to another level. The Super Bowl is a rare opportunity for them to do so, but the game just didn’t go the way it had to in order to let them make a historic call.
Michaels was as smooth as ever and Collinsworth offered strong analysis throughout the game on the most important story line: the Bengals' offensive line vs. Aaron Donald and the Rams' pass rush.
But there wasn’t an in-game moment that stood out. The Cooper Kupp short touchdown late in the game to give the Rams the lead was marred by a ref flag fest late in the drive. Those penalties just took all the juice out of the game.
There also wasn’t any strategy to break down. Both coaches made sound decisions with their clock management and use of timeouts.
So there wasn’t really a time for the broadcast to shine.
Having said that, I still have some thoughts and observations on NBC’s telecast.
• Where was NBC's rules analyst, Terry McAuley, who never appeared during the game. Here's what executive producer Fred Gaudelli told SI.com:
“Terry was at the game, in the booth and communicating to me throughout. There were two calls I considered bringing him in, one was the non-facemask call on Higgins and the other was the pass interference call on Wilson. In both cases, Al and Cris correctly analyzed the situation and Terry agreed with what they were saying (communicating to me through headset). Thus no need to bring him in.”
• NBC debuted a new score bug and it was atrocious. I’ll never understand the logic of executives who do something for 17–19 straight weeks and then change it up for the biggest game of the season, but all they did was make it more difficult for viewers to find the play clock, down and timeouts. What makes this even worse is that NBC had a great score bug. There was no need to tinker.
• We go through life each day doing things we don’t want to do, such as taking out the garbage, shaving, paying taxes, etc. That was Al Michaels on Sunday night when he was forced to acknowledge the various celebrities in attendance at the Super Bowl. I wouldn’t say there was disgust in Al’s voice when he did it, but there was definitely a “give me a freakin' break” tone.
• Michaels had a very strong moment after a huge drop by Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter when he immediately pointed out that Boyd had not dropped a pass all season.
• If you listen to the SI Media Podcast, you’ve heard me say over and over that the Super Bowl isn’t for the regular football fan. It’s for the fringe fan and the nonfan. When the viewership number comes out later in the week, we’ll see that upward of 100 million people watched the Super Bowl. Only 48 million people watched the AFC title game. The Super Bowl is for those other 50-plus million. That’s why the commercials are such a big deal. And those commercials destroy the broadcast for the real football fan. Why? Because when something big happens, like Odell Beckham Jr. going down clutching his knees, instead of showing us a replay, NBC has to cut to commercial.
This is why at halftime, we got this sequence: Commercials studio hosts give analysis, tell everyone to stay tuned for halftime-show-commercials—cut to Maria Taylor to say stay tuned for the halftime-show commercials.
• Another reason regular-season football is better than the Super Bowl: You don’t get a ton of cutaways to a camera half an inch from the face of a player’s family member in the stands.
• One highlight from Michaels and Collinsworth came when the Bengals' Vernon Hargreaves, who was inactive, ran onto the field in a hoodie, shorts and flip-flops to celebrate an interception with his teammates. “He may be inactive for a while after this scene,” said Michaels, before adding, “you don’t do that.” “That’s awful,” Collinsworth replied.
At the beginning of the telecast, Michaels mentioned what could be the "final slide in" and at the end of the broadcast, Michaels said he doesn't know what the future holds for him and Collinsworth, but the duo had a great run. That was on display Super Bowl Sunday, but it would've been nice to have a little more.
2. The single best moment from Sunday night happened off-camera. It was this encounter between Michaels and Eminem, who was blown away by meeting the broadcasting legend.
3. NBC used 122 cameras for Super Bowl LVI, but they didn't catch this moment.
4. If, like me, you're a degenerate who loves to bet over rushing yards for quarterbacks, you know the dangers of the kneel down. You will also enjoy this story about last night's kneel-down controversy.
5. It was good to see The Rock get some publicity and TV time for a change.
6. Recent SI Media Podcast guests include Boomer Esiason, Bryan Curtis, Roman Reigns, Joe Buck and Jim Nantz. Check out episodes now and subscribe to the podcast. You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy Valentine's Day.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.