There was some sports media news that hit late last week, as New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees signed a future deal with NBC Sports to do color commentary for them once he retires at some undetermined point (he is signed for 2020). The deal was viewed as a downer for ESPN, which coveted Brees (as they have coveted almost anyone they can find) for Monday Night Football. Brees will instead be groomed as Cris Collinsworth’s eventual successor on Sunday Night Football.

How he will be groomed is by, reportedly, taking the seat next to Mike Tirico on Notre Dame football broadcasts. This is obviously news for multiple reasons, but first let’s go over the reasons this is amusing:

  • NBC continues its now over two-decade-long infatuation with having alumni of schools whose fans despise Notre Dame (I could say ‘rivals’ here, but in most cases that would be significantly overstating things) doing color commentary on ND games. First it was Pat Haden (USC), then Mike Mayock (BC), then Doug Flutie (BC again) and now apparently Brees (Purdue). One can only hope Tirico gives Brees grief at some point for losing to Bob Davie twice at ND Stadium, including once by going against a reserve tight end (the Gary Godsey game!).
  • I assume this infatuation is to avoid being looked at as an ND homer network, but at this point anyone who thinks NBC is favoring ND is going to think that no matter who is in the booth. I’m not asking for Brady Quinn here, although that would be delightful, but man, it seems like they’re swinging hard the other way, huh? (By the way, I’m sure Brees will be more than adequate, this is more of a general complaint.)
  • (Sidebar: I sometimes wonder if Quinn’s current gig on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff, opposite, of all people, Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Urban Meyer, is the result of someone kicking around the question: “What is the biggest troll job we could pull on this Quinn fella?”)
  • The other reason this is amusing is because Flutie, who ND fans generally don’t care for, has apparently been pre-fired; there does not appear to be any sign he’s going anywhere in 2020 (if there is a 2020), but Brees now looms over his chair. Axing him would’ve been funny, but this is perhaps funnier.

Anyway, there’s another piece of information buried in that Post article I linked above that I’m not sure was public knowledge, or at least I didn’t know about it.

NBC already has a succession plan for Collinsworth’s SNF partner, Al Michaels. After the 2022 Super Bowl, Mike Tirico is going to take over full-time for Michaels.

(The 2022 Super Bowl, for clarification’s sake, is the one following the 2021 season, not the ’22 campaign.)

Hasta la vista, Flutie

Ever since Tirico arrived at NBC and usurped Dan Hicks as the Notre Dame commentator, Irish fans have enjoyed having a very good play-by-play guy who also actually considers football his main sport on their games. (Horse-racing guy Tom Hammond and swimming guy Hicks, though both were largely fine, were not those guys.)

But they’ve also known there’s probably an expiration date on Tirico’s time in South Bend because he clearly came to NBC to eventually replace Michaels. Apparently, that time will be after the ’21 season, which means who will be doing ND games in ’22 is likely in question. (Tirico openly loves to work, but I think even he would balk at double-dipping ND and the NFL full-time, and if he didn’t, NBC probably would.)

I think I can safely say most Irish fans would prefer not to go back to the days of commentators who basically consider ND football a side gig. Might that guy be Jac Collinsworth, who NBC recently hired away from the ACC Network? In addition to having a voice spookily similar to his father’s, he’s an ND alum, so that could be fun. Could it be Michaels, deciding to work a partial schedule of ND games rather than seek out a spot on another NFL package? Or will it be some other new voice?

And for that matter, how long is NBC going to be in the Notre Dame business? The two parties’ contract runs through the 2025 season, just a couple of years after several collegiate conferences’ rights are set to potentially change hands. It’s possible NBC makes a play for more football to complement or even supplant ND rights. ND can almost certainly get another network to do its games and retain its independent status, but by the time the deal is up, NBC will have done Irish games for 35 straight seasons, an absolute eternity in sports media. Going somewhere else would be quite a culture shock.

The answers to those questions are unclear, but in the near term, ND fans got at least part of their wish; Flutie’s days are numbered, and Brees is the next man in.