NBC’s Cris Collinsworth says Eagles fans haven’t changed, Comcast CEO channels Jason Kelce

For a moment, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts sounded a bit like Jason Kelce, without the foul mouth and not wearing a Mummers outfit.

During an NBC event Wednesday in New York City to hype its upcoming broadcasts of the 2026 Super Bowl and Milano Cortina Olympics, Sunday Night Football announcers Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth discussed the teams they might see in Santa Clara next month.

Collinsworth said he was “hedging” a bit but sticking by his prediction the Seattle Seahawks will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. The announcers also mentioned the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills, and Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers as intriguing possibilities, along with Drake Maye and the bounce-back New England Patriots.

After the panel, Roberts, a Philly native, took the stage and directed some criticism at his company’s top NFL talent over one notable omission.

“Cris and Mike, what the heck? You don’t even mention the Eagles once in the Super Bowl conversation?” Roberts joked. “I’m just a Philly guy, what can I say?”

He might as well have been saying, “No one likes us. We don’t care.”

While we still have the entire NFL playoffs to get through, Comcast-owned NBC is preparing for a busy February that will include broadcasting the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.

While Tirico is an Olympics veteran and has long been praised as one of TV’s best sports announcers, he will be calling his first Super Bowl for NBC. It’s a fitting achievement for the Queens native who was baptized the morning the Packers and Kansas City Chiefs faced off in Super Bowl I.

“This has been a part of my life from truly the beginning of my life,” Tirico said. “To call the game, only a dozen people have done it, it’s the pinnacle of our business.”

Collinsworth said NFL fans across the country share one common thread — they all think he hates their team.

Eagles fans are certainly no exception. They still hold a grudge over Collinsworth’s call of the 2018 Super Bowl, where he thought in the moment two Eagles touchdown catches — one by running back Corey Clement and one by tight end Zach Ertz — should be overturned by officials.

That anger lingered into the Birds’ Super Bowl parade, where fans booed Collinsworth during replay of the broadcast airing on TVs along Broad Street.

The animosity is one reason Collinsworth actually looks forward to calling Eagles games, pointing out the passion of Philly fans.

But have Eagles fans become nicer to him since winning two Super Bowls?

“Oh, heck no,” Collinsworth said. “It’s a passionate place, man. I’ll just say that.”

This will be Collinsworth’s sixth Super Bowl in the booth, and his first alongside Tirico. Collinworth’s first Super Bowl was in 2005 for Fox alongside Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, and he’s called four since returning to NBC in 2006 — all alongside former partner and current Amazon play-by-play voice Al Michaels.

“I’m the one dumb enough to replace John Madden twice,” Collinsworth said.

Despite picking the Seahawks to win the NFC, Collinsworth said the conference appears wide open and he could easily see the Eagles making another run to the Super Bowl. But only if they start looking like last year’s squad, where both the offensive and defensive lines were dominant.

“When I see that Philly team again, then I’ll know they’ve got a real shot,” Collinsworth said.

NBC and every other network was angling to carry the two stand-out games of wild-card weekend — the Eagles’ matchup against the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers’ game against the Chicago Bears, just the third time the historic teams have met in the playoffs.

NBC got neither. Instead, they got Patriots vs. Justin Hebert and the Los Angeles Chargers.

49ers-Eagles landed on Fox in the Sunday 4:25 p.m. slot, a no-brainer considering last year’s Eagles-Packers game in that spot drew 35.9 million viewers, the most-watched game in the wild-card round. But instead of giving NBC Packers-Bears for the Sunday evening game, they tossed it to Amazon to stream on Prime Video Saturday night.

The move has largely been viewed by sports media pundits as a gift to Amazon as the NFL seeks to renegotiate its TV deals before they’re able to opt out in 2029. But it will also be the tech giant’s final NFL game in a season where they averaged 15.3 million viewers game, increasing the likelihood we’ll see a streamer land a Super Bowl during the next decade.

In addition to the Super Bowl, NBC will also broadcast one of the four divisional-round playoff games. If the Eagles win Sunday, they’ll hit the road to face Bears or host the Rams or Carolina Panthers at the Linc.

Tirico has been bullish on the Eagles, despite the Birds’ well-documented offensive struggles. During last Sunday’s broadcast, Tirico pointed out Jalen Hurts, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, is quietly lurking out there as Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, and other quarterbacks dominate the conversation.

“There’s something about this Eagles’ team that I think even people in Philadelphia want to be a little skeptical of,” Tirico said. “But this team might be just as good as last year, and I can see them getting on a roll, 1,000%.”

And the possibility of an Eagles-Rams divisional playoff game landing on NBC?

“That would be awesome,” Tirico said.