Love him or hate him, Notre Dame football fans had one of the biggest names in sports broadcasting in recent years as [autotag]Mike Tirico[/autotag] has been calling games on NBC since 2016. Might that be soon changing, however?
As expected, Tirico was officially named to replace Al Michaels on Sunday Night Football starting this fall. Tirico will team up with Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark on the Sunday night call. Stark has been at NFL Network since 2011 and was a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football from 2000-2002.
Its not crazy to think Tirico could still do the six or seven home games that NBC carries during the year and be on a plane to an NFL destination the next night. He and [autotag]Drew Brees[/autotag] currently do Notre Dame on Saturday and the studio show for Sunday Night Football so it’s seemingly possible.
However, is it likely?
Like him or not, Tirico brought a bigness to Notre Dame television broadcasts that hasn’t been the regular for quite some time. God bless Tom Hammond, but he wasn’t that guy during his roughly 20 years on the call.
In defense of Hammond, the pipes of Charlie Jones or Dick Enberg are tough to compare any broadcaster to.
I thought last year during the Navy game that Tirico sounded like he would rather be literally anywhere else on Earth than Notre Dame Stadium that afternoon. Al Michaels didn’t double-dip and I’d be surprised if Tirico did so, either. For whatever its worth, there is no mention of Notre Dame football in Tirico’s biography that NBC sent out as part of their press release Tuesday.
It’s nothing official but it would certainly seem there will be a new television voice for Notre Dame football this fall.
Who exactly that is remains the question.
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