The NFL on CBS's Jim Nantz found himself on the wrong end of an announcer jinx on Sunday. (Credit NFL on CBS) The NFL on CBS’s Jim Nantz found himself on the wrong end of an announcer jinx on Sunday. (Credit NFL on CBS)
CBSNFLBy Sam Neumann on

The “announcer jinx” is a phenomenon that all sportscasters will find out about one way or another. The myth of predicting something’s going to happen, and then not, is feverish in baseball, where perfect games and no-hitters are often jinxed by announcers.

However, the NFL is also not immune to the announcer jinx. And we’ve already seen that this season with Fox’s Adam Amin.

While NFL Network’s Rich Eisen was able to avoid an announcer jinx altogether Sunday, waiting until after Titans’ kicker Nick Folk made a field goal to note that it was his 68th straight make under 40 yards, that day still saw a level of announcer jinxes that has yet to be seen before.

As USA Today’s Touchdown Wire pointed out, there were two instances in Week 6 that you could point to announcers being at fault. Yes, we know they aren’t directly responsible for the decision-making of the players on the field. But there have been too many instances of this actually happening to outright deny that there could be some sort of divine intervention that takes place.

The first offense was committed by veteran announcer Spero Dedes, who was on the call for CBS for Sunday’s Indianapolis Colts-Jacksonville Jaguars game. With just under five minutes remaining in the first half, Dedes made an innocuous comment that quarterback Gardner Minshew had played nearly 200 snaps this season without throwing an interception.

So, naturally, after Minshew took a snap on second-and-10, and stepped up in the pocket, he was intercepted by Andre Cisco. Minshew had gone three games without throwing an interception, and was yet to throw one in 2023, just as Dedes boasted. But it wasn’t to be after Dedes pointed out that fact.

Minshew would go on to throw three interceptions in the 37-20 loss.

The next instance of the infamous announcer jinx resulting in an interception also transpired during another CBS broadcast game. With Jim Nantz and Tony Romo on the call for Sunday’s New England Patriots-Las Vegas Raiders game, Nantz mentioned that the Patriots didn’t have a single player in uniform with an interception.

That’s because rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez, once a favorite for the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award, is out for the season after suffering a shoulder injury. He’s also the lone Patriot with an interception this season.

Or he was. That was until Nantz said something.

A mere couple of seconds later, Patriots’ defensive back Jabrill Peppers laid out Raiders’ wide receiver Davante Adams, who had just caught a quick slant pass. After the hit, the ball went flying and was plucked out of the air by New England linebacker Jahlani Tavai.

If we had a nickel for every time this season that announcer jinxes have led to multiple interceptions, we’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Maybe Eisen was onto something, after all.

[Touchdown Wire]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann