Cris Collinsworth made a funny admission during “Sunday Night Football” while honoring the late John Madden.
Collinsworth is the game analyst on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and was talking with play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico during the third quarter of the Minnesota Vikings-Green Bay Packers game. The two announcers were talking about how they view the game.
Tirico talked about how some people look at the line to see what’s going on rather than follow the ball. That’s when Collinsworth shared his Madden tribute, noting that Madden watched games from the inside-out.
“That was John Madden,” Collinsworth said about watching football from the inside out. “I used to try and pick John’s brain all the time. I said, ‘what do you do?’ Tell me how you see the game.’ He said, ‘you don’t want to know what I do.’ I said, ‘yeah, I really want to know what you do.’ And he said, ‘I look at the offensive line. They’ll tell you where the ball’s going to go.'”
Collinsworth concluded that Madden was right.
“And they really do,” Collinsworth said of the offensive line.
“As you look at it from behind the quarterback, you can tell by the pass set.”
Collinsworth humorously acknowledged that there can be one downside to this approach.
“Now sometimes, because I never watch the ball, there’s 10 times a year I have no idea what happened on a play,” Collinsworth admitted.
Collinsworth’s admission shouldn’t be used against him but needs to be taken in context. He was joking about the downside of his approach. For the 10 plays he doesn’t know where the ball is, his approach gives him the edge on the other 2,500-plus plays he analyzes live each season, which obviously makes it worthwhile.
Collinsworth is one of the most studious, well-prepared game analysts who calls football games. His ability to see games and his preparation help him see things unfold before they happen. Apparently watching the offensive line first is one of his tricks.
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