Collinsworth Has Worked NFL Games in 52 Stadiums with 13 Play-by-Play Partners
STAMFORD, Conn. – November 20, 2025 – This Sunday at SoFi Stadium, Cris Collinsworth will serve as an analyst for his 500th NFL game (regular + postseason) when he joins Mike Tirico in the booth for a matchup of NFC first-place teams as the 8-2 Los Angeles Rams host the 6-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers on NBC’s Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock).
Thirty-five years ago, on Sunday, Sept. 9, 1990, Collinsworth debuted as a game analyst alongside NBC play-by-player Jim Donovan in the booth at Rich (now Highmark) Stadium – the site of a matchup between first-round drafted quarterbacks, as Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills defeated Jeff George and the Indianapolis Colts 26-10. This Sunday, in his 500th game, Collinsworth will focus on another top QB matchup, featuring No. 1 overall picks Baker Mayfield of the Buccaneers and Matthew Stafford of the Rams.
Bookended by those two games, Collinsworth’s celebrated career has taken him through 52 NFL stadiums, partnered him with 13 play-by-play voices for games that appeared on four television networks and two streaming services… and even included one game as a sideline reporter!
Along the way, he has also served as an NFL studio analyst on five networks – HBO and Showtime for Inside the NFL (1989-2013), The NFL on NBC (1996-97), Fox NFL Sunday (1998-2001), NBC’s Football Night in America (2006-08), and NFL Network’s NFL 100: All-Time Team (2019) – and has contributed to coverage of four Olympics with NBC Sports. In addition, during the 1992-94 seasons, Collinsworth served as a game analyst for Notre Dame Football, a Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 1, 1994), and an Orange Bowl (Jan. 1, 1995 – national championship game between Nebraska and Miami) for NBC.
Among many honors, Collinsworth has won 17 individual Sports Emmy Awards – nine for outstanding event analyst, and eight for outstanding studio analyst. In addition, he is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023 for career-long excellence in the sports TV and media industry, and was in Canton, Ohio in August 2017 when Sunday Night Football was distinguished with a display in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for “its record run as the #1 show in all of primetime television.”
Prior to his broadcasting career, Collinsworth starred at wide receiver for eight years with the Cincinnati Bengals (1981-88), playing in the Super Bowl after his first and last seasons. A three-time Pro Bowl selection, he played in 107 games, catching 417 passes for 6,698 yards (four 1,000-yard seasons) and 36 touchdowns.
PRIMETIME NFL RECORD HOLDER
In Sept. 2025, Collinsworth began his 17th season in the Sunday Night Football booth – the most seasons by an analyst on the NFL’s broadcast primetime package.
SIDELINE REPORTER!
On January 15, 1994, Collinsworth worked his only game as a sideline reporter. With Marv Albert and Paul Maguire in the NBC booth for an AFC Divisional Playoff, Collinsworth braved the -14-degree wind chill at Rich Stadium as the Buffalo Bills defeated the visiting Los Angeles Raiders 29-23 enroute to their fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance.
BRRR!!
That Jan. 1994 AFC Divisional Playoff was neither the first, nor last, memorable cold-weather NFL experience for Collinsworth, who went to high school in Titusville, Fla., and played in college at the University of Florida.
At the end of his rookie playing season, on January 10, 1982, Collinsworth’s Bengals hosted the San Diego Chargers in the AFC Championship Game. The game, a 27-7 Bengals’ win, was called “The Freezer Bowl” as it was the second-coldest game in NFL history (-9 degrees Fahrenheit, excluding chill from the 35 mile per hour winds).
Exactly 34 years later, on Jan. 10, 2016, he was in the booth for the Seahawks-Vikings NFC Wild Card Game -- the third-coldest NFL game on record, with a kickoff temperature of -6 degrees Fahrenheit. (Collinsworth looking back on the Wild Card game: “I’m thinking, ‘I’ve played in worse.’ There was no wind that day in Minneapolis. We had 35-mile-per-hour winds in The Freezer Bowl.”)
BY THE NUMBERS – WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE
This Sunday marks Collinsworth’s 31st Rams game, 26th Buccaneers game, and 14th game at SoFi Stadium.
Following is a full breakdown of Collinsworth’s 500 NFL regular and postseason games as a game analyst (includes this Sunday):
WHAT GAMES IS HE CALLING, AND FOR WHICH NETWORK?
BREAKDOWN OF GAMES, AS GAME ANALYST
| Regular Season | 453 games |
| Wild Card | 21 games |
| Divisional | 15 games |
| Conf. Champ. | 3 games |
| Super Bowl | 5 games |
| Pro Bowl | 3 games |
MOST GAMES, BY NETWORK, AS GAME ANALYST
| Network (Platform) | # of Games |
| NBC | 402 |
| FOX | 64 |
| NFL Network | 22 |
| NBC/NFL Network | 5 |
| NBC/NFL Network/Prime Video | 5 |
| Peacock | 1 |
| NFLN/NBC/CBS | 1 |
WHO IS HE CALLING GAMES WITH?
Collinsworth has had 13 play-by-play partners in the booth, and one co-analyst – Troy Aikman – who worked 64 games with Collinsworth (and Joe Buck or Dick Stockton) during the 2002-2004 seasons.
When Collinsworth joins Mike Tirico in the broadcast booth on Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium to call Super Bowl LX, he will become only the second TV analyst to call Super Bowls with three play-by-play partners. Collinsworth also called Super Bowls alongside Al Michaels and Joe Buck. Frank Gifford called Super Bowls alongside Al Michaels, Jack Buck and Ray Scott/Jack Whitaker.
COLLINSWORTH’S PLAY-BY-PLAY PARTNERS
| Play-by-Play Announcer | # of Games |
| Al Michaels | 263 |
| Mike Tirico | 95 |
| Joe Buck | 56 |
| Tom Hammond | 36 |
| Marv Albert | 15 |
| Bryant Gumbel | 11 |
| Dick Stockton | 8 |
| Bob Papa | 7 |
| Jim Donovan | 4 |
| Dan Hicks | 2 |
| Don Criqui | 1 |
| Drew Goodman | 1 |
| Joel Meyers | 1 |
WHERE IS HE CALLING THE GAMES?
Collinsworth has handled NFL game analysis in 52 stadiums. This week’s home team – the Los Angeles Rams – accounts for five different home game sites in Collinsworth’s announcing career: SoFi Stadium; Los Angeles Coliseum; Edward Jones Dome; Busch Stadium; and Anaheim Stadium.
MOST FREQUENT SITES, AS GAME ANALYST
| Stadium, Location | # of Games |
| Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia | 32 |
| Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh | 27 |
| Lambeau Field, Green Bay | 27 |
| AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas | 26 |
| GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City | 22 |
| Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass. | 18 |
| Lumen Field, Seattle, Wash. | 18 |
WHICH GAMES IS HE CALLING?
NFC East divisional games account for three of the six most frequently called matchups by Collinsworth, with Dallas-Philadelphia (17) leading the way. Not surprisingly, both teams are on his most games and most frequent game site (above) lists.
MOST GAMES, TEAM, AS GAME ANALYST
| NFL club | # of Games |
| Dallas Cowboys | 67 |
| Green Bay Packers | 66 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 65 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 56 |
| New England Patriots | 50 |
MOST FREQUENT MATCHUPS, AS GAME ANALYST
| Matchup | # of Games |
| Dallas-Philadelphia | 17 |
| Green Bay-Minnesota | 13 |
| Dallas-NY Giants | 11 |
| Baltimore-Pittsburgh | 9 |
| Chicago-Green Bay | 9 |
| NY Giants-Philadelphia | 9 |
The #1 primetime show for an unprecedented 14 consecutive television seasons, NBC’s Sunday Night Football is again primetime’s most-watched program this year, and is on record pace averaging 23.7 million viewers on NBC and Peacock through Week 11 of the NFL season.
--NBC SPORTS--
