Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico discussing the fantasy impact of a Josh Allen TD. Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico discussing the fantasy impact of a Josh Allen TD. (Awful Announcing on X.)
Fantasy SportsNBCNFLBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Many strange things happened during the San Francisco 49ers-Buffalo Bills clash in the snow Sunday. One of those saw Bills QB Josh Allen throw a short pass to receiver Amari Cooper, who lateraled it back to Allen, leading to him diving in for a touchdown. That gave Allen dual credit for a passing and receiving TD, as Mike Tirico broke down on NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast:

A player getting double credit for a touchdown obviously impacts a lot of fantasy football matchups. One of those is on the NBC broadcast, featuring analyst Cris Collinsworth against his son (and Football Night In America co-host) Jac. And Cris had some gloating to do after this:

“It didn’t hurt me either. Josh Allen’s my fantasy quarterback. I’m not kidding you, it just showed up. I got a touchdown pass and whatever the other touchdown was [Tirico interjects ‘Reception’] to move ahead of Jac.”

Tirico says “Oh, you’re playing Jac?”, then describes a play, then says “I’m looking here for NFL records, and history, and all that stuff, fourth time that’s ever happened, and you’re looking for beating your son?” Collinsworth laughs and says “Well, that’s the first time it’s happened to me too. On the same play, I got a touchdown…what does it count? Because I’ve got to be able to tell the story.”

Tirico then says “It double counts, it’s a touchdown pass and a touchdown reception. It’s a times two.” Collinsworth says “I’m a genius. Look at that. That’s unbelievable, huh?” And Tirico says “You know, you’re not the only one who has Josh.” Collinsworth says “There’s got to be people losing their minds.” Tirico says “Yeah, you’re speaking for America right now.” Collinsworth says “No, I’m speaking for Jac,” and Tirico says “There are a lot of people in Jac’s position here too, who got jacked by Josh.”

Announcers discussing their fantasy football teams on-air can often be pretty unnecessary and cringe, but this discussion seemed to largely work. For one, as Tirico notes, the fantasy implications here are significant for many more people than the Collinsworths. Beyond that, this is such an unusual play with such unusual scoring, and that particularly impacts fantasy more than anything else (as this still counts as just one touchdown for the Bills).

For some further context on this (and a further rushing TD by Allen later in the game), this was just the second time in 19 years where a player had a passing, rushing, and receiving touchdown in the same game. (Interestingly enough, Christian McCaffrey, who was on the other side in this game and left early due to injury, was the last to do that in 2022, with the previous player to do so being LaDanian Tomlinson in 2005.) And Allen was the first NFL QB to do that. So that all adds up to a rare fantasy impact, and it was notable to see that discussed on the broadcast.

Update: Allen later discussed the fantasy dimensions here with NBC sideline reporter Melissa Stark after the game, and mentioned how he’d started himself in fantasy as well:

[Awful Announcing on X]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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