New England Patriots
Collinsworth has broadcasted five Super Bowls involving the Patriots, including their previous matchup with the Seahawks 11 seasons ago.
Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will call Super Bowl LX for NBC. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
January 31, 2026 | 10:27 AM
4 minutes to read
Super Bowl LX will mark the fourth time that NBC color analyst Cris Collinsworth, along with play-by-play voice Mike Tirico, has called a Patriots game this season.
It’s fitting in a few ways that Collinsworth is on the call. Five of the six Super Bowls he has broadcasted have involved the Patriots, including their previous matchup with the Seahawks 11 seasons ago, when Al Michaels was his booth partner.
Specific to this remarkable Patriots season, Collinsworth and the NBC team were on site for three of the defining games of this season — the Week 5 victory at Buffalo that stands as Drake Maye’s national coming-out party, a Week 16 victory at Baltimore when Maye engineered the first real come-from-behind win over a strong opponent in his career, and the wild-card-round victory over the Chargers, when the defense proved that it is capable of being the reason for a win.
“It does feel like we’ve kind of been witness to their evolution,’’ said Collinsworth. “When they started winning all those games a few weeks into the season, it was mostly because of an offensive explosion, and so that got all the attention. It was like, ‘Oh, Drake Maye is something special and look at what they’re doing getting the ball down the field.’ The Ravens game was back and forth and he came through big-time in the fourth quarter.
“Now, at the moment, the offense isn’t putting up the numbers that it one was, in part because of this run of great defenses that they’ve been playing against. So much of their success the last three weeks has been about their defense, which just kept getting better.”
Collinsworth said the Patriots’ ability to win games in a multitude of ways, depending upon the strengths and weaknesses of opponents and variables such as the weather, reminds him of the franchise’s dynasty years.
“I’ll tell you, Mike Vrabel is an exceptional coach and his own man, but it does remind me a little bit of what [Bill] Belichick did,’’ said Collinsworth. “There are games where you win with the offense putting up 35 points and you’re going to focus on winning that way, and there are games where you know you can’t make a mistake against a great defense and instead rely on your defense to do the heavy lifting. It’s an individuality of the game plans that has been at the core of this franchise for a long time.”
He chuckles.
“Against Denver, you could feel Vrabel going over to [offensive coordinator] Josh McDaniels and going, ‘Hey, man, look, just as long as we don’t hand them the ball in our end, they’re not going to score any more points,’ ” said Collinsworth. “Offensive coordinators always want to go for it on third and fourth down. I coached in high school and I always wanted to go for it. But these defensive guys are like, ‘Hey, let’s think this through a bit.’”
Collinsworth, who will be calling his 53rd Patriots game when they play the Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif., next Sunday, has been in the booth for a pair of the franchise’s Super Bowl wins (culminating the 2004 season, when he was at Fox Sports, and ’14) and two losses (’11 and ’17).
He said the Patriots victory over the Seahawks — when Malcolm Butler instantly went from obscurity to Super Bowl legend with a game-saving interception — is one of his favorite games he has ever been a part of as a broadcaster.
“If you remember, for like three quarters of it, it wasn’t like one for the Hall of Fame,’’ he said. “And then all of a sudden everything happened and it came down to all of these decisions – the Seahawks’ decision to throw the ball after Marshawn Lynch had carried them to the 1-yard line, the Patriots’ coverage decision, Richard Sherman’s reaction, just all of these things that you knew would be remembered for a long, long time.”
The Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX over the Seahawks on Malcolm Butler’s interception at the goal line. – The Boston Globe
Michaels and Collinsworth were at their best on Butler’s interception. Michaels identified him immediately, calling the interception with a tone that sounded bemused in that familiar Michaels way as well as incredulous. Collinsworth immediately blasted the Seahawks’ decision to throw the ball.
“I have told Al that I thought it was his finest moment from the time we were broadcasting together,” said Collinsworth. “And I kind of realized, as we got past the initial, ‘Wait, what just happened?’ that this was going to be historic. I’m sitting there, and I thought to myself, ‘Just say what you’re thinking. Don’t overthink it, just say what you’re thinking. And I screamed, ‘I can’t believe that call!’
“It’s funny, I saw Pete Carroll at the NFL Combine like a week later, and he was wanting to explain the whole thing to me. And I go, ‘We can sit here all day. I’m never going to get that one.’ ”
Hemmin’ and hawin’
Ron Borges, who is one of the 50 voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, called into 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand Show” on Wednesday to discuss the voting process and how Belichick ended up getting snubbed in his first year as a candidate. The hosts — Marc Bertrand and Tim McKone, with ESPN’s Mike Reiss joining them in studio — asked Borges if he’d voted for Belichick. When he hemmed and hawed, they should have pressed further for a straight answer … NESN Bruins play-by-play voice Judd Sirott will be calling The Beanpot on the men’s side, with the first two games Monday, and the consolation and championship on Feb. 9 … As first reported by Front Office Sports, NBC is finalizing deals with recent stars Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, and Anthony Rizzo to serve as analysts when the network returns to broadcasting Major League Baseball this spring. Votto is an inspired hire, Rizzo will probably be very good, and Kershaw, well, he’s very famous.
Chad Finn
Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.
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