1. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl, but nobody had a better NFL postseason than Fox’s top broadcast team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen.
In their first season as Fox’s “A” crew, replacing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who both left for ESPN last year, Burkhardt and Olsen flew under the radar for most of the regular season. But with stand-alone games and monster viewership in the postseason, many fans took notice of how well the duo work together, with Olsen especially emerging as a fan favorite for his calm manner and smart analysis.
There’s no spotlight, however, like the Super Bowl spotlight. And Burkhardt and Olsen showed that they were more than ready for it.
Burkhardt had a magnificent game on play-by-play. His call of Nick Bolton’s 36-yard fumble recovery touchdown in the second quarter was superb, with his voice conveying the shock of the play.
Burkhardt also had a great call of Kadarius Toney’s huge 65-yard punt return in the fourth quarter that set up a Chiefs touchdown with the level of his voice changing as the run developed.
Burkhardt also immediately let viewers know there was a flag on the field during the biggest play of the game, James Bradberry’s holding of JuJu Smith-Schuster late in the fourth quarter, which basically sealed Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory.
It’s not a shock that Burkhardt would call a great game. He’s as smooth as any play-by-play person working today and is great at knowing when to raise his voice and when to lay out. But he was working his first Super Bowl in front of 100-million-plus viewers and didn’t have one flub or botch. Every call was on point. It was truly impressive.
Olsen continued his run of strong broadcasts by doing what he’s done over the past several weeks: Tell us what’s going on during each play in a clear, succinct manner without overhyping every little thing.
By staying even-keeled, it means more when Olsen does get overly excited. He did that on Jerick McKinnon’s late run toward the end zone when Olsen implored him to go down. “He’s gotta get down; he’s gotta get down,” Olsen demanded while jumping into Burkhardt’s call.
Olsen obviously nailed this, and he’s shown he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to clock management. He explained ahead of time that the Chiefs should not score a touchdown on their last possession and should instead chew the clock and kick a game-winning field goal. He also perfectly explained how both coaches should and would use their timeouts late in the game.
I had one criticism of Olsen early in the season, and we discussed it when he appeared on the SI Media Podcast in December. I thought Olsen went too easy on the refs. That certainly was not the case last night.
Olsen was all over the refs for missing an obvious holding or pass interference call against the Eagles on third-and-8 in the second quarter.
He then went toe to toe with rules analyst Mike Pereira over the controversial holding call against Bradberry that effectively ended the game. Of course, Pereira defended the ref’s questionable call. Olsen, though, said what every non-Chiefs fan was thinking.
“I think on this stage, I think you let ’em play. I just think in this moment, whoa, man. That is a game-altering penalty. ... It changes the entire complexion of how this classic game is gonna end.”
I have just one minor criticism regarding Olsen.
With the constant slipping by players becoming a theme during the game, I would’ve liked a little more from Olsen on what was going on there. As a former player, he could’ve told us what was happening with their cleats and offered some insight into how frustrating it is for a player to slip over and over and whether it would affect them mentally. Burkhardt and Olsen also could’ve questioned how on Earth the NFL would allow the biggest game of the year to be played on a s---ty surface, but no broadcast crew would ever do that, so I can’t fault Burkhardt and Olsen for that.
Despite that, Burkhardt and Olsen get an A for their first Super Bowl call.
2. I don’t want to go on another rant about Mike Periera and the use of a “rules expert,” so I’m just going to point out two things. I still have no idea what Pereira was trying to say during the DeVonta Smith helmet catch that ended up with the refs ruling it a no catch. Pereira’s explanation went on and on and on and was such a word salad.
There are many problems with “rules analyst.” One of the biggest is that none of them will ever just say, “Guys, this is a really tough call that could go either way. I really don’t know what’s going on here.”
In Burkhardt’s only misstep of the night, he tried to tell us in the first quarter that Pereira showed us why he’s “the best in the business” because he told us Kenneth Gainwell’s first-quarter touchdown would be taken off the board because his elbow was down shy of the goal line. Again, anyone with functioning eyesight saw this, so I don’t know why we needed Pereira to tell us his elbow was short, nor why Pereira telling us what we are all seeing with our own eyes would make him “the best in the business.”
3. I wrote in today’s lede that I wanted more regarding the slippery surface. I also wanted a little more on Patrick Mahomes’s ankle injury, but Erin Andrews cleared up the reason for the lack of info there, revealing that Andy Reid does not talk to sideline reporters at halftime in any game when the Chiefs are trailing. I love Andy Reid, as I told you last week, but that’s a little weak.
4. While most NFL media folks picked the Eagles to beat the Chiefs ...
... Nate Burleson deserves props for correctly predicting the final score of Super Bowl LVII.
5. NBC Sports Philly analyst Michael Barkann did not censor himself on the network’s postgame show when it came to the controversial holding call at the end of the game.
6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with Richard Deitsch of The Athletic to discuss the latest sports media news.
Topics covered include Tom Brady’s taking a year off before joining Fox, the recent backlash against Tony Romo, Stephen A. Smith’s and Jay Williams’s getting into a nasty back-and-forth on First Take, Radio Row, the WWE’s hottest story line in a long time and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
