Caption: The current "Sunday Night Football" logo (2022-present). | Photo credit: Variety.com.
- Buccaneers, Chiefs, Cowboys, and Packers Make SNF-High 3 Appearances Apiece
- Storied Rivalries: Bears vs. Packers in the league's most-frequent matchup (Sept. 18); Cowboys vs. Eagles on NBC's Sunday Night Football for a record 15th time (Oct. 16)
- Star QB's in New Places: New Broncos QB Russell Wilson and the Broncos host the San Francisco 49ers (Sept. 25) and Kansas City Chiefs (Dec. 11); New Colts QB Matt Ryan and the Colts visit the Dallas Cowboys (Dec. 4)
- "Happy Holidays": First-Ever Thanksgiving Day Game in Minnesota (Patriots-Vikings); Tom Brady vs. Kyler Murray on Christmas Night (Buccaneers-Cardinals); Matthew Stafford vs. Justin Herbert on New Year's Day Night (Rams-Chargers)
- New SNF Broadcast Team - Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth & Melissa Stark - to Debut at the Hall of Fame (Jaguars vs. Raiders) on Thursday, Aug. 4
NBC's Sunday Night Football will once again be home to the best and brightest stars of the National Football League for the 2022 NFL season. From Matthew Stafford and the defending Super Bowl champion Rams raising their Super Bowl LVI banner at SoFi Stadium before facing Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in NFL Kickoff 2022, to Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes facing off for the sixth time (Week 4), to the pressure-packed season finale in Week 18. Following the regular season, NBC Sports will present three NFL playoff games (two Wild Card, one Divisional) across the first two weekends of the NFL Playoffs.
This season's SNF schedule is peppered with the league's star signal callers. 15 games will have a quarterback that has started at one Super Bowl.
All 2021 NFL postseason teams are on the SNF schedule, including three games each for the NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys, NFC North champion Green Bay Packers, AFC West champion Kansas City Chiefs, and the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The new SNF announce team of Mike Tirico (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst), and Melissa Stark (sideline reporter) will make their on-air debut at the Hall of Fame Game in primetime on Thursday, August 4 (8:00 PM, ET) on NBC. The Hall of Fame Game has the Jacksonville Jaguars taking on the Las Vegas Raiders. Tirico replaces Al Michaels, who moved on to Amazon's Thursday Night Football (however, Michaels will announce a Wild Card playoff game for NBC this season). Stark replaces Michele Tayofa, who retired from sportscasting following Super Bowl LVI.
The season begins with NFL Kickoff 2022 on Thursday, September 8 (8:20 PM, ET) from SoFi Stadium, as Jalen Ramsey and the defending Super Bowl champions Rams host the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen, who passed for almost 9,000 yards and has led Buffalo to a impressive 24-9 record over the past two seasons.
The season opener of Sunday Night Football on Sunday, September 11 (8:20 PM ET) from AT&T Stadium, has seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit Dak Prescott and the defending NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys in a rematch of a thrilling Opening Night game from the 2021 season.
The highly anticipated Brady-Mahomes IV takes place in Week 4 on Sunday, October 2 (8:20 PM ET). Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs visit Tom Brady's Buccaneers under the lights at Raymond James Stadium. Chiefs-Buccaneers, of course, is a Super Bowl LV rematch. This game will mark the sixth time that the former Super Bowl and league MVP's will square off. The first Brady-Mahomes matchup took place on Sunday Night Football back on Oct. 14, 2018, with the two quarterbacks combining for almost 700 yards of passing and six touchdowns. Brady's Patriots won 43-40 on a field goal with no time left.
Following Brady-Mahomes, NBC's October slate of star-studded quarterback matchups continues in Week 5 on Sunday, October 9 (8:20 PM, ET) as Joe Burrow and the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals take on Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens from Baltimore. The month of October wraps up in Buffalo (Week 8; Oct. 30; 8:20 PM ET) with another fantastic game featuring two noteworthy quarterbacks. Back-to-Back MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers take a trip to Orchard Park, New York to play young superstar QB Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.
SNF will feature three holiday matchups during the 2022 NFL season. Justin Jefferson and the Minnesota Vikings host the New England Patriots on Thursday, November 24 (8:20 PM ET), in the first-ever Thanksgiving game in Minnesota. Patriots HC Bill Belichick has a 3-1 record on Thanksgiving. Then, on Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25, Tom Brady and the Buccaneers visit Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. Murray is the sole rightsholder to having 70+ passing TD's and 20+ rushing TD's in his first three seasons in the league. And on New Year's night, Sunday, January 1, Matthew Stafford and the Rams face Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers, in the first-ever regular season meeting between the two teams since SoFi Stadium opened in 2020.
NBC will present 20 regular season games this season, including 18 regular-season Sunday Night Football games, NFL Kickoff 2022 (Bills vs. Rams, Week 1), and the annual Thanksgiving night primetime game (Patriots vs. Vikings, Week 12).
On the weekend of January 14-15, NBC will be the home for two Wild Card playoff games, including the primetime Sunday Wild Card playoff game. This will be followed up by a Divisional Playoff broadcast on the weekend of January 21-22.
The complete 2022 NBC Sunday Night Football schedule is below.
- 2022 Sunday Night Football on NBC Schedule | (All Times ET; Subject to Change)
Preseason:
* Hall of Fame Game - Thursday, August 4th
Jaguars vs. Raiders (Canton, OH) - 8:00 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
Regular Season:
* Week 1 - Thursday, September 8th (Kickoff)
Bills vs. Rams - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* Week 1 - Sunday, September 11th (SNF)
Buccaneers vs. Cowboys - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* Week 2 - Sunday, September 18th
Bears vs. Packers - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* Week 3 - Sunday, September 25th
49ers vs. Broncos - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* Week 4 - Sunday, October 2nd
Chiefs vs. Buccaneers - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 5 - Sunday, October 9th
Bengals vs. Ravens - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 6 - Sunday, October 16th
Cowboys vs. Eagles - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 7 - Sunday, October 23rd
Steelers vs. Dolphins - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 8 - Sunday, October 30th
Packers vs. Bills - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 9 - Sunday, November 6th
Titans vs. Chiefs - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 10 - Sunday, November 13th
Chargers vs. 49ers - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 11 - Sunday, November 20th
Chiefs vs. Chargers - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
- NOTE: The Chiefs-Chargers game replaces the originally scheduled Bengals-Steelers game.
* Week 12 - Thursday, November 24th (Thanksgiving Day)
Patriots vs. Vikings - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 12 - Sunday, November 27th (SNF)
Packers vs. Eagles - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 13 - Sunday, December 4th
Colts vs. Cowboys - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 14 - Sunday, December 11th
Dolphins vs. Chargers - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
- NOTE: The Dolphins-Chargers game replaces the originally scheduled Chiefs-Broncos game.
* ^ Week 15 - Sunday, December 18th
Giants vs. Commanders - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
- NOTE: The Giants-Commanders game replaces the originally scheduled Patriots-Raiders game.
* ^ Week 16 - Sunday, December 25th (Christmas Day)
Buccaneers vs. Cardinals - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* ^ Week 17 - Sunday, January 1st (New Year's Day)
Steelers vs. Ravens - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
- NOTE: The Steelers-Ravens game replaces the originally scheduled Rams-Chargers game.
* ^ Week 18 - Sunday, January 8th
Lions vs. Packers - 8:20 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
- NOTE: The Lions-Packers game was flexed into the "Sunday Night Football" schedule.
Postseason:
* AFC Wild Card Game - Saturday, January 14th
5 Chargers vs. 4 Jaguars - 8:15 (Al Michaels, Tony Dungy, Kaylee Hartung)
* AFC Wild Card Game - Sunday, January 15th
6 Ravens vs. 3 Bengals - 8:15 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
* AFC Divisional Playoff - Saturday, January 21st
4 Jaguars vs. 1 Chiefs - 4:30 (Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark)
Source(s): NBC Sports Group Press Box.
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ReplyDeleteI wonder what the '#2 team' would be for NBC with Mike Trico now with Cris Collinsworth and Drew Brees likely done with NBC
ReplyDeleteMy guess it's Jac Collinsworth Tony Dungy and Kathryn Tappen
Al Michael's will call one of NBC's playoff games as for the week of Thanksgiving I could see it being thee team you said.
DeleteWe know for sure Al Michaels will have a playoff game. Other than that, they don't really need a number 2 crew. For a long time that only existed for their DH wildcard games and just used Michaels/Madden or Collinsworth for all the regular season game. Since 2016, NBC has wanted to get Tirico into some action, so they switched things up at times. Unless they have someone waiting in the wings, they won't have to make any switches unless their regular crew wants a break or NBC is dumb enough to think their backup guys are any good.
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ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about future flexes? I think in week 14 we could see the Chiefs-Broncos flexed out of primetime in favor of the Dolphins-Chargers game. Week 13 is tougher to tell: the Titans-Eagles game should be the Sunday night game, but the question is becomes if the powers that be decide to showcase their beloved Cowboys they always seem to gloat over.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, who decides on these flexes? Is it solely the league, or do the networks have a big say on this?
You got the prediction of MIA-LAC going to SNF exactly right!
DeleteThis is getting far ahead, but I wanted to speculate on another possible flex I could see: week 17, which I could see two major flexes.
ReplyDeleteRams-Chargers is not looking to be a great matchup. At this rate, the Chargers are likely going to be playing for a wild card spot, so the game will have significance if so. BUT, the Jets-Seahawks game in Fox's late singleheader slot may be heading to our tvs for SNF. That will be worth keeping an eye on. Of course, as I type, the Jets and Seahawks are two major competitors for playoff spots, and if the jets are still playing well, they can get some national attention that no doubt was not planned to be the case coming into the season.
Also, the Vikings-Packers game is not likely to have much appeal for a national spot on CBS's late doubleheader game window given a weak performance this year by the Pack, so I expect a change there. I can see the Dolphins-Patriots game being flexed since all AFC East teams are right in the mix, at least at this point. I would guess they keep the Vikings-Packers at 3:25 because while the Dolphins-Patriots game is a better fit, perhaps it's not a game that really begs for entire national attention; the Midwest and maybe large portions of the west would not be so keen to tune in so maybe having both games at this time can satisfy the country in big regional swaths.
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ReplyDeleteTamirmoore I saw we get Al Michaels back to NBC for a game Saturday night after he moved to Thursday Night Football
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