Q and A with Mike Tirico, who will call the Super Bowl and host the Olympics in the same weekend for NBC

NBC’s Mike Tirico, a Queens native, will be the play-by-play announcer for his first Super Bowl on Feb. 8 from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. He also is the host of NBC’s “Primetime in Milan” from the Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 6 in Italy.

He took time from his busy schedule for this Q and A with Newsday reporter Anthony Rieber:

Newsday: Both events, same weekend. What's the number one challenge? What's the number one thing that gets you excited?

Tirico: Excited, and the fact that nobody's ever been fortunate enough to have this opportunity, I just am very thankful to the people I work for at NBC to entrust me with these two big events. The crisscross, obviously, doing the NFL package and hosting the Olympics, you knew this intersection was coming for the last couple of years. I just love the fact that we found a way to make them both work here for Super Bowl Sunday and then continue off for the last 13 days in the Olympics over in Milan.

ND: What kind of a flyer are you? Do you sleep? Do you watch a movie? Do you read a book?

Tirico: I grew up in Whitestone, Queens. So I grew up in New York, grew up wanting to do this. Went to Syracuse in large part because Marv Albert is a Syracuse alum. And I know from Marv what he said and talking with him over the years, you always have to make sure you can sleep anywhere for a little while. I am very good at falling asleep anywhere, so I will have no problem sleeping on the flight over from San Francisco to Milan.

ND: Growing up in New York, how do you think that has shaped the broadcaster you've become?

Tirico: Oh my gosh, it's in everything that I've ever done. I mentioned Marv. Marv, Bob Costas, Len Berman, those are the people who I watched growing up. My roots in New York are, I think, a big connection to what I do and how I do it because I've always loved listening to all the broadcasts. I listened to Marty Glickman call football on the radio as I was growing up. Spencer Ross called the Jets games on WCBS when I was a Jets season ticket holder, sitting in section 9 of Shea Stadium . . . My days of falling in love with sports happened in old Shea Stadium. I've just been a sports fan my entire life and being a New York sports fan growing up as a kid was hugely influential in the passion and energy I try to bring to it on a regular basis.

ND: Let me ask you about two guys you're going to be working with in the next couple of weeks. Compare and contrast: Super Bowl analyst Cris Collinsworth and Olympics correspondent Snoop Dogg.

Tirico: Both are much more alike than you would think, and I'm not joking at all. They are both smart. They are both really exceptional business minds that are in the entertainment space -- different types of entertainment -- but their business mind is really sharp. I would say above all, they both have a great curiosity. Like Snoop's connection with athletes, and with families, to me, traces back to his curiosity about your story. How did you get here? Let me connect with you and try to tell your story. And Cris is the most curious person I've ever worked with in addition to being a 17-time Emmy winner and supremely talented and knowledgeable about football. Cris has been on the air for a long time, and nobody can ever even come close to saying that Crris is out of touch with football. He’s as on top of things, analytics, trends in the league as a guy who just walked off the field and that's because he works his butt off. But it's also because he's curious, like, ‘Why do you guys do this? How do you do this?’ And his curiosity has impacted me as a broadcaster and I think our show in general. So they are both really curious people and I think that's what allows them to connect. Even though you wouldn't put them in the same club, I'd hang out with them in the same club.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.