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Mike Tirico left ESPN, MNF 8 years ago. Paris Olympics showed he made right call.

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Mike Tirico left ESPN, MNF 8 years ago. Paris Olympics showed he made right call.

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PARIS – Not even in Mike Tirico’s best-laid plans could he have envisioned all of this. Hosting the most-viewed Olympics since the 2012 London Games. Gearing up for another season alongside Cris Collinsworth as the play-by-play announcer for “Sunday Night Football,” his first Super Bowl call set for the end of next football season. The cherry on top of the NBA coming back to NBC, and the news he will, of course, be the lead play-by-play person for that sport, too. 

To say it was all guaranteed when Tirico, 57, departed ESPN, where he was the announcer for “Monday Night Football” with Jon Gruden, in 2016 would be too rosy. 

He wanted to call the biggest events in sports. By making his bold move eight years ago, his foresight has been rewarded – and then some. 

“Those are opportunities that were just not there at ESPN at that time, or now, and – did I think it was going to happen? It was a possibility,” Tirico told USA TODAY Sports, acknowledging how rare it is the same person occupies the Olympic host chair and the “SNF” headset. “But I wasn’t sure. I just thought it was a great time to write that next chapter.

“It has been the best portion of my career, without question.”

“MNF” was not the brand it once was or what it has turned itself into recently. But that’s because ESPN had to dish out hundreds of millions to steal Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from FOX and revitalize a program that had been struggling – in no small part due to its inability to find a consistent booth – after Tirico’s departure. 

Back then, life after ESPN was more uncertain within sports broadcasting. The nicknames “mothership” and “World Wide Leader” weren’t ironic. Without ESPN, Tirico said, he doesn’t have the versatility to pull off hosting an Olympics. Some of his closest friends still work for the company. But NBC’s platform – and, obviously, Tirico’s skills and downright impressive versatility – has taken him from a cog in the wheel at the “Leader” and made him the face (and voice) of exactly what Tirico sought: the biggest stages in sports.

At the Paris Olympics, He bantered with everyone from Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart to Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles over two-plus weeks. During the closing ceremony Sunday, he hit 100 hours on air total at these Games between the two ceremonies, the daytime program and the prime time show.

Tirico meant no disrespect to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang and the last two COVID-addled ones in Tokyo and Beijing, but Paris has been his favorite stint at the Olympic desk thus far. 

“This is exactly what you think the Olympics should be in terms of this job,” he said. 

And with another NFL season starting in less than a month, Tirico will be ready to shift gears once again. While he called and hosted multiple sports at ESPN, going from the Olympics to the No. 1 show in primetime (as NBC likes to bill “SNF”) is a privilege only afforded by a place like network television and NBC. 

“So yeah, in some ways, I was hoping it would be like this,” Tirico said the day before the Paris Olympics closing ceremony. “But I don’t think you could ever sit there and say ‘Yeah, this is exactly the way it’s supposed to be.’ It’s turned out that it’s been the best thing professionally for me.” 

The satisfaction comes not only because of the assignments, Tirico said, but the people, such as NBC Sports’ lead producer Rob Hyland and his Olympics boss, Molly Solomon – along with NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus and NBC Sports president Rick Cordella. 

“All these people have helped me do things in my career that I didn’t think I’d do,” said Tirico, who added that what he is currently doing sometimes seemed too ridiculous to dream about. “This has turned into an amazing, one-of-a-kind job, and I’m privileged every day to get to work with these people and do things.” 

By waiting his turn and stepping up in the soft retirements of Al Michaels and Bob Costas, Tirico has replaced two broadcasting legends – and is one man essentially doing the jobs of both. 

Tirico didn’t have to change what made him one of the best in the business to rise to their level, either. 

“We knew by watching Mike’s previous work (before 2016 when we hired him) how talented and hard working he was, but he’s exceeded our expectations by a lot,” Lazarus told USA TODAY Sports in a statement. “His ability to host, interview, do play by play and to set any scene, news or otherwise, is at the top of his profession across the board. Fans connect so well with his style and substance, and he easily communicates facts and storylines through any telecast.” 

Tirico has been connected to Costas for more than 35 years, since he won a scholarship in Costas’ name to attend Syracuse University. Costas was the voice of NBC’s heyday basketball coverage, and as fate would have it, the league’s new media rights deal that included NBC – and puts Tirico back on the mic for the “Association” – became official while he was in France. 

“It’ll keep us busy, but we love to be,” Tirico said. 

And nobody is busier in sports media than Tirico. On top of all of his other duties, he anchors NBC’s golf coverage along with the Kentucky Derby. Costas and Michaels displayed similar types of breadth in their primes, but not to the extent Tirico does.

In regards to the two Hall of Famers, Tirico only has reverence.

“You don’t replace those guys,” Tirico said, “you follow those guys.

“To even be mentioned in the same breath and the fact I’m doing the job they’ve done, is still a ‘pinch me’ for a kid who grew up in New York wanting to be a sportscaster.” 

The Whitestone, Queens native who grew up on the Mets and the Jets is still a sports fan at heart. The bronze-medal team handball game had him on the edge of his seat, he said.

Like he always finds ways to keep us on the edge of ours.

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