If you’ve watched Sunday Night Football, you know the opening tends to be a close-up on Al Michaels setting up the game before Cris Collinsworth joins to make it a two shot.
He generally slides in on his chair, which is probably about as loose and whimsical as Cris Collinsworth is going to get. People grew to expect it, and even look forward to it, with varying degrees of irony. The SNF crew realized this, leading to a supercut of the Collinsworth slide earlier this week:
✨A tradition unlike any other✨
The @CollinsworthPFF Slide is iconic. pic.twitter.com/e4U2AqHAjd
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 10, 2018
It had become a reliable weekly tradition. Tonight, though, Collinsworth called an audible:
https://twitter.com/SNFonNBC/status/1074473779928186880
Twitter had just started counting on Cris to come in from stage right, and now he’s doing things like coming in from the other side of the screen!
THE OLD SWITCHROO!!! What a repsonse !!!! pic.twitter.com/dccr8hJ7d4
— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) December 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/CooperTWatson/status/1074475376565456896
When Colinsworth hits the reverse slide in pic.twitter.com/ZoT3vAow7v
— Fitz (@FitzGSN_) December 17, 2018
REVERSE SLIDE.
DON'T DO IT TO EM, CRIS. pic.twitter.com/vPFAlsii9q
— Dom (@DomGarrett) December 17, 2018
So, there we are. Collinsworth has slid in from the left, which does probably complete the evolution of the slide, unless he somehow enters the booth via grappling hook zipline from across the field. It’s a surprisingly quick move, given the circumstances; we’d just gotten used to the premise and Collinsworth has already played the logical dramatic card, like how God Friended Me did an episode about God unfriending him like four shows in.
It does, however, mean we get to wonder which side of the screen Collinsworth will be coming in from, which means a chance for some gambling action, which should keep Al Michaels interested.

About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.
Recent Posts
Kenny Moore II ‘wanted to quit’ NFL media bootcamp, gains new respect for broadcasters
Moore said the nerves on interview day hit him the way they did before his first NFL game.
Tyrese Haliburton is latest athlete to launch production company
Their first project is Time Out, a docuseries following Haliburton's recovery from the Achilles tendon rupture he suffered in Game 7 of last year's NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
NBC Sports finalizes its WNBA broadcast team
NBC Sports added the final pieces to its WNBA broadcast team this week, naming Ashley ShahAhmadi, Jordan Cornette,...
Terrika Foster-Brasby joins USA Network’s WNBA coverage
Foster-Brasby serves as the Connecticut Sun's sideline reporter and contributes to CBS Sports and NBC Sports.
ESPN
Building the perfect WrestleMania card of ESPN personalities
Troy Aikman explains why he gets ‘offended’ when his analysis gets framed as critical
"I hope I do it in a respectful way, and not in a way that tries to embarrass or be disrespectful to the people that are out there on the field doing it."