On Sunday, Jim Nantz will call the Super Bowl for the fifth time. It's highly unlikely that, on Monday, the nation will be talking about him.
And that’s a good thing. When sportscasters make headlines, it’s usually because they’ve screwed up and gotten people mad at them. In that, they’re like referees. Fans rarely notice when they do their jobs well, but, boy, do they ever notice when they make mistakes.
Nantz doesn’t make many mistakes. Doesn’t make comments — on or off camera — that offend. Doesn’t inflame fans.
Well, not often, anyway. There was that time way back in 1983 when Nantz — a 24-year-old weekend sports anchor at KSL-Channel 5 — pointed out what could have been a holding call on Brigham Young University’s game-winning play in the Holiday Bowl. If the call had been made, it would have negated the play — quarterback Steve Young handed off to running back Eddie Stinnett, who passed it back to Young, who ran in for a touchdown with just 23 seconds to play and lifted the Cougars to a 21-17 win.
Nantz heard from a whole lot of BYU fans who were not happy about him pointing out the missed call. Imagine, a sportscaster pointing out something that he saw on video. Oh, the humanity!
Sunday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots (4:30 p.m., CBS/Channel 2) will be Nantz’s seventh Super Bowl — he hosted the studio show in 2001 and 2004 and called the games in 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016.
He’s also called the NCAA men’s basketball tournament Final Four 28 times (after hosting the studio show five times); anchored CBS’ coverage of The Masters Tournament 30 times; and was the prime-time host of the 1998 Winter Olympics (back before all the Olympics were on NBC).
At the Super Bowl, he’ll be working with relative neophyte Tony Romo, who will be working the biggest event in football — the biggest event on TV — for the first time after only two seasons in the booth. And the retired Cowboys quarterback actually did get talked about after the AFC Championship game for what he did right. He astonished fans by consistently predicting the Patriots’ play call before the ball was snapped.
“Once in a blue moon, you get lucky and you might say something right,” Romo said self-deprecatingly in a conference call with reporters.
One person who wasn’t surprised was Nantz. He said “there have been many games” when Romo did the same thing, but it drew more attention because the Patriots-Chiefs game was “such a high-profile occasion.” Nantz “chalked a lot of it up to the fact that [Romo] and [New England QB] Tom Brady are seeing the same thing.”
Nantz counts himself among those who were “dazzled” by Romo’s prognostications, but said people should realize it came after “years and years of his work and preparation.” Romo isn’t “getting some sort of message from the gods,” he said.
“People think Tony’s a fortuneteller, but this isn’t guesswork and this isn’t psychic ability,” Nantz said. “This is a testimonial to a guy that, obviously, in his career spent a lot of time figuring it out. And Tom Brady has, too.”