Calling a Super Bowl for a major network means major scrutiny -- the entire world is watching and listening to the call. Super Bowl LII was no different, with Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels getting beamed into more than 100 million homes. Many of those homes featured Eagles fans and those Eagles fans were NOT impressed with Collinsworth's work.
A large number of them are so mad, in fact, they have gone to Change.org and started signing a petition they hope will get the "most biased and horrible commentator ever" (!) disciplined by NBC for his "constant fawning over Tom Brady and the Patriots."
From the petition:
Chris Collinsworth is the most biased and horrible commentator ever. Being a Philadelphia Eagles fan and having to listen to him constantly talk about the Patriots and hardly ever the Eagles during the game made it almost unbearable. As a professional he has a duty to if not be unbiased at least try to make the game enjoyable for all viewers. His constant fawning over Tom Brady and the Patriots the entire game was disgusting, making it sound like he was a local Boston radio personality and not a commentator for a nationally syndicated football game. His performance brought back recent memories of the horrible job Pete Morelli and his officiating crew did against the Panthers earlier in the year. Please NBC discipline him or at the very least keep him to only commentating on Patroit [sic] games who he so very much loves.
The Eagles fan being too fired up to double check the spelling or even spell Patriot correctly in the last sentence is my favorite part, especially since this happened during or after an Eagles Super Bowl victory. There is some kind of interest here, though, because more than 35,000 Eagles fans have signed the petition. If the petition crosses 50,000 names will it, like, alert the NFL or something? Who knows. The NFL won't care one bit and neither will NBC. Maybe Collinsworth did not do a perfect job, but he is a really good football commentator.
Watching the replay via NFL Game Pass, he and Michaels were not great on the Zach Ertz call. Collinsworth said he was "not even taking a guess," but then definitely took a guess and guessed completely wrong.
"I think they have to overturn it," Collinsworth said, before adding "I think this is incomplete."
Michaels agreed with him, which was kind of surprising. Imagine if it was possible to catch a ball here:
And have it be incomplete here:
Actually don't imagine that world. It sounds horrible.
Anyway, Collinsworth and Michaels were also confused about the Corey Clement touchdown -- and potentially shook by the Clement touchdown when assessing the Ertz score? -- earlier in the game, which was indeed confusing. That was a play you often saw overturned this year, and it was confirmed by Gene Steratore's crew according to replay. It was confusing.
The Philadelphia media didn't appreciate Collinsworth's opinion on the two calls, however.
Plenty of people lashed out on Twitter too.
It was a catch @CollinsworthPFF get over it.
— Joe Flint (@JBFlint) February 5, 2018
Issue is control. Looks like he has it initially and gets both feet down in bounds. There is some movement of the ball, but don’t think enough to say loss of control. Call should stand.
— Dean Blandino (@DeanBlandino) February 5, 2018
Chris Collinsworth should not be part of the committee determining what a catch is moving forward. Gimme a break. Obvious catch.
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) February 5, 2018
Ok. What is Collinsworth watching? When was the ball ever "loose." Am I in a different stadium?
— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) February 5, 2018
Collinsworth making it clear who he wants to win. Lol.
— Chris Thompson (@ChrisThompson_4) February 5, 2018
Including this fan, who took time out of his interview with a local FOX station in the wake of his celebration to tell Collinsworth to "take that, baby."
'CRIS COLLINSWORTH, TAKE THAT BABY'
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 5, 2018
This dude brought the energy for his local TV interview pic.twitter.com/x4Z6HH3FzR
One Eagles player, Chris Long, went back and watched the Super Bowl and was also not impressed with Collinsworth's analysis.
Ertz takes 17 steps and Collinsworth says he thinks they have to overturn it 😂😂😂😂
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) February 6, 2018
HE'S NOT WRONG. (See: screenshots above.) Long also took umbrage with Collinsworth suggesting he should have been chasing after Tom Brady at one point.
He also thought it’s my job to run with Tom Brady w QB wheel route on a reverse pass. Lmao.
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) February 6, 2018
The funny thing about this is Collinsworth definitely doesn't have a rooting interest. He's really good at his job. He got mixed up on the replays and the reviews of the plays in question here, but no one should use this as an indictment of Collinsworth's overall ability.
And Eagles fans know they WON THE GAME, right? Being bitter about an announcer's call of a Super Bowl after winning seems like a waste of resources. If anything, it should be Patriots fans miffed about a couple of plays that didn't break their way during Super Bowl LII. Good luck finding anyone who will feel sorry for them though.
