Courtesy USA Today

(January 30, 2009) In 1998, NBC aired the Super Bowl days after learning its 33-year NFL TV run was over and CBS took its place. Heading into that Green Bay Packers-Denver Broncos game, NBC's crew sounded somber with game analyst Phil Simms expecting "we'll cry a little, then it will be over."

Cris Collinsworth is one of the few NBC principals from 1998 who's back for NBC's Super Bowl Sunday. He says he wasn't all that distraught then: "Once you get cut by the NFL, nothing really stuns you. You're 30 years old, just got married and your wife is pregnant. That's a turning point. There were other networks, not other leagues."

That cut came after Collinsworth's Cincinnati Bengals lost to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII in 1989. And losing a Super Bowl, he says, "is a devastating moment and, as bad as it seems at the time, it gets worse."

In figuring out where to go from NBC in 1998, Collinsworth asked NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol about joining Fox's NFL studio show. Collinsworth remembers Ebersol didn't hesitate to tell him to go: "He said, 'They're cutting edge, humor is part of what they do.' It was almost like, 'Here's where you are, here's graduate school.' " (Collinsworth had already gone to law school.)

At Fox, Collinsworth learned to be less "tough-minded" on air — "you had to laugh at yourself really fast, because they'd chop you up in little pieces and leave it for the janitor" — and called Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005.

When NBC got back into the NFL with Sunday night games, Collinsworth told Fox Sports President Ed Goren, " 'Ebersol is the guy who pointed me to you, who hired me when I was nothing. Don't I have to go back?' And Ed said, 'You're right.' "

Collinsworth returned to NBC as lead game analyst — until John Madden became available. He'll fill in for Madden on one NBC game each season but isn't pining for Madden to retire in the three years left on NBC's NFL TV deal. "I sure hope not," Collinsworth said. "He's not only a great friend; he's the best there's even been."

It's no surprise Collinsworth won't complain about his odd NBC role Sunday. Amid the celeb drop-bys, cooking segments and network plugs on NBC's pregame show, Collinsworth will do a feature with New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick on game tapes of the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers.

As he notes, "I'm the football geek on the show."