After a long offseason, football fans will get their first true taste of NFL action at the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night when the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers meet in Canton to kick off the 2026 preseason.
While it will still be a while before we see the biggest stars of the sport on the field, the biggest stars in the broadcast booth are far less concerned with potential injuries and ready to roll. NBC will run out its Sunday Night Football crew for the game, with Mike Tirico on play-by-play and Cris Collinsworth on color commentary. Most notably, the broadcast will feature the debut of former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin as a studio analyst for Football Night in America.
Tomlin and much of the rest of the FNIA crew shared a video of the “passing the phone to someone” trend to tease their first show of the season.
“Really excited to get things started,” Tomlin said in the video. “Just finished my first rehearsal here at NBC Sports as we get ready for our debut on FNIA.
Exciting things are on the way from the FNIA Crew. 🙌
📺: NFL Hall of Fame Game: Thursday 7 p.m. ET on NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/OGEUwdbxae
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) August 4, 2026
Tomlin is joining the NBC broadcast team this year after nearly two decades as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and is easily the biggest addition to the studio. How his chemistry will mesh with the likes of Jason Garrett and Devin McCourty remains to be seen, but given how willing he was to provide a good quote during his time as a coach, he seems like a good fit. He’s already gotten a few reps in with host Maria Taylor, having made his first NBC appearance back in April during basketball season.
It will also be interesting to see what Tomlin has to say about teams across the NFL. At 54, he still has plenty of coaching years left in him, and given his sustained success with Pittsburgh, he will remain a top name thrown around in next year’s coaching cycle. Plenty of coaches have made a temporary jump to broadcasting as they wait for their next preferred job to become available, and it feels like Tomlin is destined to be back in the league eventually. But who knows — the reduced workload of a weekly broadcasting gig compared to that of an NFL coach has plenty of appeal to it.
About Tyler Lauletta
Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.