Mike Tirico leaving ESPN for NBC

RedOctober3829

RedOctober3829

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Mike Tirico, one of ESPN’s best known on-air voices, is leaving the network for NBC, according to several sources. Tirico has been a mainstay with ESPN since '91, and given his many roles at ESPN, he will be an incredibly difficult talent to replace. Tirico has been ESPN's on-air face of the NFL, serving as the lead play-by-play announcer for “MNF” since '06. A source says that Sean McDonough, who recently renewed his deal with ESPN, is a leading candidate to replace Tirico on "MNF," though no decision has been made yet. NBC would not comment on the move, with a spokesperson saying that the net does not comment on people under contract with another outlet.

A versatile broadcaster, Tirico also heads up ESPN’s second NBA broadcast team and will continue to call games through this year's playoffs, as his current deal ends this summer. He also has called college basketball and football games and led ESPN’s golf and tennis coverage. Tirico is expected to be the lead play-by-play voice on NBC’s new “Thursday Night Football” package of five late-season games. It is unclear what his other roles will be at NBC, where Al Michaels is the lead play-by-play voice for the network’s signature “SNF” package, and Bob Costas is an established Olympics host, having been selected as primetime host for a record seven Olympics including this summer's Rio Games.

Michaels has two years left on his NBC contract, which runs through '17. NBC’s golf portfolio – the network has deals with the PGA Tour and British Open – also are attractive to Tirico, who is known to be a big golf fan. Tirico is repped by Sandy Montag.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2016/04/25/Tirico.aspx
 
Vinho Tinto

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Mike Tirico being 49 years old made me look up his wiki page. He was hired by ESPN after spending four years as the sports director for the CBS affiliate in Syracuse. He must have gotten that job while he was still an undergrad. He's had an unbelievably impressive run.

Good move by NBC to be ready for when Michaels retires.
 
Kliq

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He has had some weird incidents at ESPN, but I think he was the best play-by-play man they had. I will miss him handling NBA games because I thought that his best sport, he has the right amount of enthusiasm for the game without being over-bearing and wasn't afraid to call-out the league/players if he felt it was needed.
 
ifmanis5

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Kliq said:
He has had some weird incidents at ESPN.
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He sure did (like, if those things had happened in the current social media climate, he would have been a goner) but he worked hard to put those things behind him personally and professionally. He is always prepared, enthusiastic and objective. You can't ask much more than that. He was very good at any sport they threw at him and is really hard to replace.
Two other thoughts- ESPN's recent financial tailspin leaves them open for poaching like this. We may see more. And if this is a break for Sean, I wish him the best and hope he can take advantage.
 
grimshaw

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Any actual remaining talent leaving ESPN is wonderful. Tirico is excellent and I am imagine him replacing Michaels as the latter is in his 70's.
 
benhogan

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Vinho Tinto said:
Mike Tirico being 49 years old made me look up his wiki page. He was hired by ESPN after spending four years as the sports director for the CBS affiliate in Syracuse. He must have gotten that job while he was still an undergrad. He's had an unbelievably impressive run.

Good move by NBC to be ready for when Michaels retires.
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Yep. Tirico wore a suit to his Newhouse classes everyday at Syracuse. He was all business as an undergrad.
 
Vinho Tinto

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I like the NFL's logic. Fans are accustomed to seeing run down and ill prepared teams play on Thursday. It'd be nice to have announcers that were in a similar state.
 
JimD

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Someone needs to explain to me why the NFL should ever get involved in selecting announcer teams. I get it, it's their product and all, but how about you trust your partners with the expertise in broadcasting sports?
 
cornwalls@6

cornwalls@6

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canderson said:
The NFL.

It'll be hard on winter Sunday afternoons but my goal is to binge watch Netflix instead.
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I don't think I'll ever not be fired up for the Patriots. And particularly for however much longer the BB/TB era has left. But I've always also been intensely interested in the entire league. By this time every year I'm itching to watch all of it. This year, I find myself utterly indifferent to any thing other than the Pats. The constant fake scandals, arrogance of the owners and their need to crush the players at every turn, Goodell's continued existence, etc. have combined to really sour me on the overall product. That could change once the games kick off. But right now, I can see myself limiting my consumption of their product to Pats games and playoffs. Not exactly a big pricincipled stand, I know. But unimaginable for me until very recently.
 
shaggydog2000

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cornwalls@6 said:
I don't think I'll ever not be fired up for the Patriots. And particularly for however much longer the BB/TB era has left. But I've always also been intensely interested in the entire league. By this time every year I'm itching to watch all of it. This year, I find myself utterly indifferent to any thing other than the Pats. The constant fake scandals, arrogance of the owners and their need to crush the players at every turn, Goodell's continued existence, etc. have combined to really sour me on the overall product. That could change once the games kick off. But right now, I can see myself limiting my consumption of their product to Pats games and playoffs. Not exactly a big pricincipled stand, I know. But unimaginable for me until very recently.
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If the Pats were terrible and boring for a long, long period of time, say 4-5 years, I could see myself tuning out eventually. I don't follow the NFL in general, just my team. It is kind of a heavily ingrained Sunday afternoon ritual, but they've added so many games on so many nights, and the Pats always get a lot of prime time slots, so I'm becoming more used to how pleasant free Sunday afternoons in the fall can be. Maybe I could break the cycle.
 
LeoCarrillo

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benhogan said:
Yep. Tirico wore a suit to his Newhouse classes everyday at Syracuse. He was all business as an undergrad.
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Completely true Tirico story. When I was an undergrad at Syracuse, Tirico was the sports guy for one of the local stations. This is the summer of 1990. I'm in my off-campus living room one day around 6 o'clock, probably drinking a Piels beer and throwing darts, and Tirico is on the TV doing a live shot at Manley Fieldhouse for the Empire State Games, a big teen sports thing. And Tirico's struggling. "Tonight, Russ ... uh ... Phelps ... excuse me, Phillips ... from Oneon-- um, Oneida ..." And he looks greenish. My roommate's like, "I think that dude's hung over." Five seconds later, he bails off frame. Right in the middle of the segment. After like three seconds of a silent shot of the soccer field behind him, they cut back to the studio where the anchor just plays it off with, "Okay, Mike. We'll check back with you during sports. Thanks."

My roommate and I jump on our mountain bikes (he had a Trek, I had a Cannondale. Not important) and flew down to Manley Fieldhouse. From our house, we were only like 3 minutes away and knew exactly where Tirico was. We get there and he's in The Thinker position (like the Rodin sculpture but for hungover guys about to puke. Complete with thumb and finger on bridge of nose). And he's sitting in the open side door of the news van and holding a Gatorade.

We really wanted to heckle him, but fought off the urge. After five minutes waiting to see if he puked, we got bored and pedaled away.
 
the1andonly3003

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Deitsch is guessing Tirico gets added to Football Night in America, it would be back to the old days with a huge panel

Costas, Hines Ward, Dungy, DP, Rodney + Tirico (Peter King + Florio reports)
 
mauf

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JimD said:
Someone needs to explain to me why the NFL should ever get involved in selecting announcer teams. I get it, it's their product and all, but how about you trust your partners with the expertise in broadcasting sports?
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One reason to have a network partner for Thursday night is to give the games more of a big-time feel. Having the network's "A" team is part of that; if NBC is going to put Tirico on TNF, NFLN might as well produce the broadcast itself and have Mayock call the game. (They could still sell the broadcast rights for the first part of the season to a network; that's a separate decision from who handles production.)

As a serious fan I'd rather have Tirico (or Mayock) on TNF, particularly if doing two games a week is going to dilute the quality of Michaels's work, but I understand that the NFL makes decisions like this with the marginal fan in mind, not guys like me who are going to watch anyway.
 
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